Rethinking Lists: To-Dos are a 3D - Not 2D – Skill
I am a huge David Allen fan. He has lots of fans for good reason: He made to-do lists cool. (If you haven’t read David Allen’s Getting Things Done or his other books, rush out now and buy them.)
David Allen taught us why we need to get our to-dos (all of them) out of our heads and onto paper. He introduced us to a skill and a system for controlling what’s on our plates so we can worry less and get more done.
Most of us have a to-do list (or a few) following a system of our own design or one we’ve learned, whether it’s the GTD model, the Bullet Method, or any number of others.
As we collectively face our Q4 goals (and our accumulated sense of overwhelm), let’s take a hard look at our faithful to-do lists which are a great (and necessary) starting place for what we need to do and when.
But lists are also linear, static, 2D, flat. How we run our work and lives, however, is not. We don’t work in chronological (or logical) order. We jump across the planes of what we should do and want to do and we wear different hats in the process.
“To-do lists are linear, static, 2D, flat. How we run our work and lives, however, is not.”
Let me offer another dimension—literally — to your thinking of your to-dos. Imagine them as a 3D cube of your sacred buckets, your zones, and your priorities. Or, if you prefer, imagine your to-dos as a globe, pyramid, hexagon, or whatever speaks to you. Just not lists.
So, let’s reimagine our to-dos.
Start with your sacred buckets.
The first dimension (or “D”) of your to-dos that you need is the category of sacred buckets. These are the parts of your life that matter most:
Spouse, partner, dating
Kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews
Health, fitness, well-being, spirituality
Career
Client work
Looking for a new job, marketing, sales
Hobbies, teams, sports
Writing and blogging
Reading, research, learning
Education, course work
We have different buckets depending on what our goals are and what stage of life we’re in. You may have 4 sacred buckets, or you may have 3 or 6. You can add or subtract buckets when you want, and you can make them any size you want.
Buckets save you from dropping balls. If you are doing something to contribute to the goals in your buckets each day or week, you are less likely to let your relationships, kids, business, side gig, sales, customers, staff, or volunteer work slide.
Buckets are intentional. No matter how busy you are, you still control how you define your buckets and what’s important to you.
Buckets are aspirational. You build them around your big-picture goals.
Buckets are tactical. They take ethereal goals (like New Year’s Resolutions) and pull them into everyday planning.
Buckets give you balance. Buckets give all parts of your life attention, not just the squeakiest project, client, or family member.
So, write down the categories that are most important to you. In the process, you will naturally give them weight, attention, and boundaries. (This is the superpower of personal documentation in its simplest and most stripped-down form.)
Straddle your zones of comfort.
The second “D,” or dimension, is about the “zones” of your life. Zones are about your comfort levels and the areas, systems, and processes of your life that are working, not working, or non-existent.
For a moment, think about the areas of your life that:
Work “automatically” like a machine.
Run semi-automatically when you give them attention.
Are there but need a continuous push.
Are your stretch goals (and you don’t have a system in place).
Your automatic systems may be that your daily routine is intact, your job is a cinch, and your marriage is tickety-boo.
Your semi-automatic areas may be your long-time clients or customers who you have worked years to gain their trust. I have these projects in my own business: if I give them time, I am confident that we can deliver the work.
Your third zone may be that you have a great gym routine or list of potential clients to call, but you really need to push yourself to do it.
The last is your stretch zone – maybe you want to start a business, write a book, change careers, run a marathon, or start a charity. But you don’t have a proven path—yet. Nor momentum, or the wind in your sails, as they say.
Now, I don’t have a perfect ratio for how you divide your to-dos across your zones. But I do know from experience that you need to have a foot in each (if you can imagine that as possible).
I have had times in my life when all my to-dos were in my automatic or semi-automatic “comfortable” zone, and I didn’t grow. (You see these people around you every day.)
“For stretch goals, you don’t have a proven path—yet.”
I have gone the opposite extreme working full-out in the stretch zone. The result? I was burnt out, running in too many directions with too many projects started, and letting the things that I used to take for granted in the automatic zone – projects that were running smoothly, fitness, friends – slide.
I have noticed that people are the most balanced, realistic, and successful when they know their zones of comfort and how to work in them. So, define your own zones and know how to straddle them.
Pick your 5 Top Things.
Now, let’s add the final and perhaps hardest D – your priorities.
To get serious about your priorities, use a method I call 5 Top Things. This is about picking 5 top to-dos each day.
But there’s a catch. For the things you choose, you need to push or nudge (if not stretch) yourself to do them. They cannot be in your routine—just the stuff that you “feel” like doing.
If you have fallen off the wagon when it comes to the gym and you need to push yourself to go, then put this on the list for that day.
If you have to nudge yourself to make that important sales call, then do it.
If you have procrastinated on a certain piece of work for a few days now (maybe weeks), do it.
On the flip side, if you have a great eating or fitness regime, don’t put it on your 3D list. If you have a bunch of client events you’re looking forward to scheduling or attending, don’t count them either—you know you’ll get them done.
The goal is not to add more and more to your to-do list and to send your day into a flurry of activity, but to elevate the most important steps to take each day.
“The goal is not to add more and more to your to-do list but to elevate the most important steps to take each day.”
The overriding point of a 3D list is to push forward the processes, systems, habits, and areas in your life that aren’t in the automatic or semi-automatic zone – yet. But with time, intention, and consistency, they will be.
Your 2D list is a great starting place, but the 3Ds kick up your to-dos a notch or two. Use your 2D list to capture what you need to do and when but use your 3D list to make your (otherwise flat) work more meaningful, rewarding, and productive. The 3Ds take your to-dos beyond the checklist and into a new level that preserves what’s working in your life, fixes what isn’t, and stretches you into your future.
Liked this? Click here to get more insights and tips from me. If you’re exploring a documentation challenge, problem-solving issue, or anything else, I’d love to help. Shoot me an email at: adrienne@bellehumeurco.com.
