A Task is not a well formed task until it has these elements.
We have all done it haven’t we. Most of us have so much going on in our lives that we wish there were a few extra hours in the day so we could fit in everything. You may have tried traditional to-do lists and time planning systems but given up on them weeks or even days later because they were to complex or to cumbersome or you spent more time filling them in than actually doing stuff. I have tried many systems – none worked so I sat down to create my own, a kind of hybrid of all the other systems I learnt plus a few insights of my own to help me out in my own unique situation.
What I think I have come up with is, is a flexible, robust system that GETS THINGS done – rather than something you give up on down the line because it just didn’t work for you. I have outlined some of the elements in my free Blog in the hope that some of the stuff I share will go on to help other people.
Before I start I just want to define what I believe a task to be. For me, a task is not just or not even an item on a ‘to-do’ list it’s much more than that. Tasks are the main unit of my time planning solution so I will start here and we can build around this core. By following this system you will be looking at much larger chunks of information than perhaps you are used to. It might seem difficult at first but that because you are not used to working like this, stick with it and I promise it will make things FAR simpler. [More on Chunking later]
When ever I create a task in my planner it must contain the following three elements which I remember by the three letter acronym RRN. Here is what RRN stands for: -
Result: First and foremost you want to know what you get from this task. Kind of like a goal description or traditional to do item title. But not only that you have to define the metrics by which you consider the task to be completed as a success or a failure. BUT this is not just a title like “go shopping” it’s more describing what you want to get from that “go shopping” experience.
To explain, you don’t want to “go shopping” – you want to “Ensure there is enough food in the house to feed yourself and your family for the next week” Why? Well further down the planning process a result like “go shopping would leave you with no option – to complete successfully you must go shopping. But “but ensuring there is enough food…” Leaves you with options and creative solutions if time is tight. For instance have you tried home delivery, leveraging the task to another family member, or eating out for the week! So accurately describing your result – and the measure of that result, rather than a to-do item title like “go shopping can potentially turn a 90min or more task into a less than 5min task! Almost a 95% saving! Can you see were I am coming from?
Reasons: Why do you want to do this task? What will it get you? How will it help you in you categories of life [More on Categories later]. The reasons are the driving force behind the result, a bit like the big picture. It gives you a compelling reason to go out and take action.
Look if you have an item on your to-do that just sits there as a bland “change light bulb” or “make an appointment for haircut” then that are not tasks, they are just one niggling line items among dozens of other niggling line items to get done. If there are no reasons then your to-do’s become just a pain in the back side. And I’m willing to bet that unless you are one of those people who take great joy in ‘crossing things off’ they won’t get done.
And if you are one of those people that take joy in ‘crossing things off’ then you have a reason – to cross it off – but very often the quality of completion suffers because your reason is to cross it of your list, not to finish the job to a high standard.
No, YOU HAVE to give reasons for why you MUST get this task finished. It is the main energy and motivation to get things done. Now do you start to see why to-do lists seldom work?
Next Action: Now, this is where the rubber meets the road. List here in order all the individual traditional to do line items you need to do in order to complete the task. For a simple task there might only be one line item for instance in our “go shopping” example “Go Shopping” might be the only Next Action you need. However, if the task is more complicated such as create and send the proposal for Widget ltd. Then you may have a few next actions such as: -
· Gather pricing information from John in marketing
· Write proposal
· Get sign off from Ted your boss
· Email proposal to Lucy Turner at Widget Ltd
Making sure you put them in the correct sequence of events in order to get the task complete. Here is the kicker though – NEVER REVIEW YOUR LINE ITEMS WITHOUT FIRST LOOKING AT YOU RESULTS AND YOUR REASONS. Or else you are again staring at a bunch of to-do items and we all know where that will get you.
And that in a nutshell is my definition of a task. First of all you ‘chunk the to-do into a task. You describe the result you want. You describe why you want that result. Then you itemise and sequence what needs to be done in order to successfully complete the task. Also note that I haven’t yet put any time constraints on the task. I will do this when I start to plan and schedule my time.
Again, it may seem complex at first but believe me once you get going you find it incredibly powerful. And it’s a bit like learning to drive. It might seem as tough you will never master gears and steering at first – but when you persevere, something clicks and it just comes naturally.
Example Task
Below is an example of a real life well formed task that I created to get this blog entry complete. It took me less than a minute to complete.
Create First post for my compound improvement blog.
Result:
Create a brilliant post to kick off the time management series with in the compound improvement blog.
Reasons:
· Want to get started on my compound improvement blog.
· Want to get momentum going by just starting the writing process and not worrying if it is perfect
· Want to write about a useful subject that brings traffic to the site.
Next Actions:
· Review planning tools to make sure I am up to speed
· Mind map the structure of the post
· Write the post
· Publish the post to the compound improvement site.
