Like a lot of people I keep a to-do list. And sometimes, some items just languish on the to-do list until it is better to just get rid of them than anything else.

From a work perspective, I use a to-do list to keep track of what I am supposed to be doing and sometimes, it mentally acts as a justification for I have more to do than I have time to do it. While this may be true, it is essentially not taking responsibility for my own work/performance. For instance, the to-do list is not useful if it doesn’t list items in the order of importance. Also it could be improved it I track how long it takes me to do various tasks on the list. By 1) spend some time estimating how long 2) calculate how long it actually took. This will help me get better at estimating the amount of time required and also figure out ways to spend less time getting things done.

Thinking more about this, I realize what I need is a ‘what am I going to do today list” – based on my calendar, new tasks that pop up and other disruptions, I need to clearly see what it is I plan on achieving on a daily basis and see how far along I am at the end of the work day.

What this system doesn’t fix that I need to think about is, 1) how will I measure the promises that I made (especially in meetings and stuff) to make sure I deliver on them and 2) the promises others make to me, to ensure they deliver as well.