TO-DO LISTS THE KEY TO EFFICIENCY

Hi! everyone,

I am so glad to seeing you all again and I believe that you not only enjoy reading the articles, but are also receiving its value and benefits.

In today's information age world, we have a very hectic lifestyle. The chances that we are caught in the following situations are very high:-

1. We frequently feel overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to do; or

2. We have mountain of deadlines to meet; or

3. We just forget to do something important, so that people have to chase us to get work done.

All of the above are consequences for not maintaining a proper "To-Do List". To-Do Lists are prioritized lists which comprise of all the tasks that need to be done. They list everything that you need to perform, with the indication of priority and dateline.

From my personal experience, there are at least five valuable benefits, as listed below, which I like to share with you:- 

1. Stay in control

This is, by far, the greatest benefit. Our lists will give us a feeling of staying in control of our lives. This is vitally important especially when we don't have a clear, daily list of action steps to help us maintain our activity and stay focused. However, when we keep To-Do lists, we are never at a loss for finding something to do that is important. Even when we work off lists due to unexpected tasks, our minds are always attentive to the things we need to do next. Hence, no time is wasted.

2. Eliminates procrastination

I have to honestly admit that I seldom procrastinate. In fact, I have the habit of doing thing early and focus on completing things ahead of schedule. Those who have worked with me, know that I seldom slip through the cracks or get lost because I am always backed up by To-Do list.

3. Frequent reassessing of priorities

Since it gives us a bird's eye view of all the uncompleted tasks, it constantly helps us to reassess our priorities and at the same time frequently force us to confront items on our list that have made slower progress than expected. By constantly reviewing To-Do list it will not only enhance your productivity, but your deadlines would probably be met.

4. It relieves mental attention

Our lists function similarly as an external quick-access hard drives for storing items that are not currently needed for the immediate tasks at hand. Therefore, by making lists, we relieve our mental attention and eliminates worry. As such, we are less likely to wonder what is going on because we consciously work through everything going on in our lives through the process of updating our lists. This give you peace of mind because we are freed from the burden of having to remember details. 

5. Allow timely reassigning of tasks

By regularly updating the progress, problem areas and bottlenecks will surface much faster and easier. This will prompt you to reassign tasks if necessary or alternatively bring more help to a problematic area. Prevention is always better than cure. So, To-Do lists can assist you to achieve that goal.

6. It will help you to achieve gratification.

You will obtain much gratification by ticking things off as you accomplish them. Thus the immense feeling of satisfaction is always there when you look back at the list and seeing every task with a line through it. You will definitely feel much more gratified at the end of day. This will fan your desire to achieve more with less. Try it out, you will then know what I mean.

For those who have done so, congratulation to you and I believe you will continue to do so because the benefits are overwhelming. For those who have not , I challenge you to try it out and let us know your feedback. You may find it time consuming but I can assure you that each benefit is significant enough to justify your time spent. This may be painful exercise initially, but later you will enjoy working with it because of its overwhelming benefits.

I hope the above solution will ease your life and give you some light to drive you towards greater achievement in life.

Thanks for your time and look forward to hearing from you.

 James Oh