Have you ever almost shut down from the stress of losing control of your to-do list? Don’t lie. You have. We all have. In this episode of The Productive Pastor I share the 5 ways you can destroy a massive to-do list and set yourself up for future productivity success.

The List

1. 1 Big and Three Medium: John Zeratsky I found this tweet back in July. It caused an interesting discussion as well as got my mind working. I have started doing this the last few weeks. This is a simple life hack.

2. 7 Things You Can Do on Friday to Make Monday Awesome - Kevin Daum: My wife always clears her desk at the end of a workday. On Friday, she even does more. It all goes into making Monday better. Kevin gives 7 great tips for you to integrate into your workweek to make next week better.

3. Achieve Your Goals by Focusing on Critical Activities - Harry Che: What is absolutely critical for you to do today? Most of us can’t answer that question. The secret sauce to hitting goals is to know what you need to do.

How To Destroy A Massive To-Do List

1. Collect it.

These thing are sitting in your head and other places taking up emotional energy. Carve out some time and just get everything on paper. I prefer Post-It notes and a Sharpie. David Allen’s classic Getting Things Done talks about the benefit of the capture process.

2. Get it all in the same place.

Once you have a giant stack of Post-Its, start writing them down. You can do this in a digital document, but I prefer paper (it makes the next step easier). Don’t try to organize just yet.

3. Filter out what can die.

What has been dropped for so long the damage has already been done? What really doesn’t matter? What doesn’t move things forward and might have little to no benefit?

Let them die.

4. Categorize and rank importance.

What items on your list go together? Home, work, school, personal… there will be plenty. You will most likely even have some subcategories. I generally do this first level with a highlighter.

Once you have them grouped, start ranking them by importance. I prefer the Eisenhower Method. Start marking what is important and urgent. Those are your mission critical tasks.

5. What is yours alone and what can be delegated?

Delegation is a skill I am working on (I am currently between horrible and bad). Michael Hyatt’s work on delegation is the best I know of.

Toolbox

Last week my Dad emailed me. He is a great pastor and has been featured on the show before. He gave me advice he first heard from Bill Hybels. He told me “when your stress levels are high, up your solitude and exercise.” Let me tell you how much this has helped me the last few weeks!

Remember to sign up for the Productive Pastor Insider List. Get a great free productivity resource and the inside scoop every other Friday.

Listen: Stitcher RSS Direct Download iTunes