Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
– William James

If you’re working through this course, you obviously want to start approaching your work and your life in a more productive and efficient manner.

Once you have defined the goals and habits that will help you most as you work toward your dream, you must list out the tasks that need to be done. These become the items on your weekly to-do list.

How do you make sure that you get through that to-do list and that you aren’t constantly treading water?

You need to set out the tasks you need to do and then work through them in order until they’re all complete.

And there’s a definite art to coming up with a to-do list. Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Workweek, always talks about having one task that he absolutely must get completed that day and then completing that. Everything else, he considers to be ‘extra’.

This is generally the best attitude to take to any list of objectives. Complete the biggest and most important task first and then move on to the smaller ones.

The reason this is so important is that the biggest task is going to take the most time, the most focus and the most energy. It’s also going to give you the biggest sense of satisfaction once completed.

If you finish all the smaller tasks first, then you risk taking up a lot of time with switching between tasks, answering emails and setting things up.

Small, unimportant tasks can end up taking longer than you think and then you will be left with not enough time to complete that one ‘big task’ that you needed to finish. As a result, the day ends and you’re left feeling stressed.

Instead, work on that one massive task that will make a real difference first. Then start on those smaller jobs and get as many as possible out the way. You can do those after 4 p.m., at the point in the day when you’re starting to feel less productive.

If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?
― Timothy Ferriss

Read the next article in the series: Spiritual – Am I Living a Balanced Life?

Read the previous article: Necessary

Read the first article in the series: Internal – Doing the Mental Work in Order to Succeed