Discussion Forum > The Impactful To Do List
Impress your friends! Astound your enemies! Use it in Clear for iOS and Mac!
1. Highlight and copy this on your Mac or iOS thingamajig:
Priority: What's my top priority this month?
Habit: What one habit am I forming for the next 30 days?
Opportunity: What's my top opportunity this month?
Challenge: What's my biggest obstacle to overcome this month?
Undone: What's the number one thing you're avoiding?
Solution: What's the best solution to my biggest obstacle?
2. Open Clear on your Mac or iOS wizmobang and create a new list.
3a. On your Mac, open the new list and simply paste in the text you copied above.
3b. On iOS, open the new list and shake it like a maraca or a crying baby. I mean Polaroid. "Paste Tasks" will appear. Tap it. In go the PHOCUS questions. Insert your answers beneath.
5. Create a new task below your monthly PHOCUS block and tap the space bar to leave this as a blank task. This provides space between your PHOCUS block and the tasks below. Now enter your tasks.
6. Type your E and I numbers into each task.
7. Multiply these numbers together and write this impact ratio number in their place. The E and I numbers won't be needed now.
8. Now you can blow five minutes reordering your tasks from top to bottom, highest number to lowest, and it will all be color coded!
9. Work your tasks in order, top to bottom.
10. Complete a task? Swipe left to delete.
11. Worked on a task enough for today? Swipe right to dim and send it to the bottom. The next day swipe the task right to re-illuminate and squish it back into your colorful jello mold of a task list. Taste the Rainbow ®.
1. Highlight and copy this on your Mac or iOS thingamajig:
Priority: What's my top priority this month?
Habit: What one habit am I forming for the next 30 days?
Opportunity: What's my top opportunity this month?
Challenge: What's my biggest obstacle to overcome this month?
Undone: What's the number one thing you're avoiding?
Solution: What's the best solution to my biggest obstacle?
2. Open Clear on your Mac or iOS wizmobang and create a new list.
3a. On your Mac, open the new list and simply paste in the text you copied above.
3b. On iOS, open the new list and shake it like a maraca or a crying baby. I mean Polaroid. "Paste Tasks" will appear. Tap it. In go the PHOCUS questions. Insert your answers beneath.
5. Create a new task below your monthly PHOCUS block and tap the space bar to leave this as a blank task. This provides space between your PHOCUS block and the tasks below. Now enter your tasks.
6. Type your E and I numbers into each task.
7. Multiply these numbers together and write this impact ratio number in their place. The E and I numbers won't be needed now.
8. Now you can blow five minutes reordering your tasks from top to bottom, highest number to lowest, and it will all be color coded!
9. Work your tasks in order, top to bottom.
10. Complete a task? Swipe left to delete.
11. Worked on a task enough for today? Swipe right to dim and send it to the bottom. The next day swipe the task right to re-illuminate and squish it back into your colorful jello mold of a task list. Taste the Rainbow ®.
June 22, 2013 at 17:06 |
Michael B.
Michael B.
Hi Michael B.
You did a fine job presenting and explaining this system.
Back in 2007, Mark wrote a very similar article which embraces the same principles but with his own unique process. It took me awhile to find the article in the archives because although I distinctly recall reading something similar on one of Mark's blogs, I couldn't remember the title. Just my luck. The title began with a "w".
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2007/2/6/what-is-effectiveness.html
I thank you for bringing up these idea because they deserve our attention. Again, thank you for presenting it in such a way to make it easy to understand. For me anyway, I feel that these principles are the bedrock of learning how to prioritize. As usual, many people will choose alternative methods based on those same principles. Your post is an excellent starting post.
p.s. When I pressed the "create post" button, one of the two capcha words was "principles" LOL!
You did a fine job presenting and explaining this system.
Back in 2007, Mark wrote a very similar article which embraces the same principles but with his own unique process. It took me awhile to find the article in the archives because although I distinctly recall reading something similar on one of Mark's blogs, I couldn't remember the title. Just my luck. The title began with a "w".
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2007/2/6/what-is-effectiveness.html
I thank you for bringing up these idea because they deserve our attention. Again, thank you for presenting it in such a way to make it easy to understand. For me anyway, I feel that these principles are the bedrock of learning how to prioritize. As usual, many people will choose alternative methods based on those same principles. Your post is an excellent starting post.
p.s. When I pressed the "create post" button, one of the two capcha words was "principles" LOL!
June 22, 2013 at 18:05 |
learning as I go
learning as I go
learning:
Thanks for your comments and the link to Mark's article! I have found both that article and the one he links to in the comments section (on structure) to have been immediately useful and insightful! Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks for your comments and the link to Mark's article! I have found both that article and the one he links to in the comments section (on structure) to have been immediately useful and insightful! Absolutely brilliant.
June 23, 2013 at 3:24 |
Michael B.
Michael B.
1. At the top of a sheet of paper, write out the words from the acronym "PHOCUS" and answer each question with a word or a brief sentence.
Priority: What's my top priority this month?
Habit: What one habit am I forming for the next 30 days?
Opportunity: What's my top opportunity this month?
Challenge: What's my biggest obstacle to overcome this month?
Undone: What's the number one thing you're avoiding?
Solution: What's the best solution to my biggest obstacle?
2. Write down everything to do this week below your PHOCUS block.
3. Just above and to the left of your first task, write "E I", like so:
Priority:
Habit:
Opportunity:
Challenge:
Undone:
Solution:
E I
___ Task
___ Task
___ Task
4. The "I" column to the left of your tasks stands for "impactful". Working down the page, you’re going to ask yourself a question regarding each task.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how impactful is this task?
10 being very impactful, 1 being not very impactful. Write this number to the left of each task.
5. The "E" column to the left of your tasks stands for "easy". Working down the page a second time, ask this question:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy is this task?
10 being very easy, 1 being not very easy. Write this number to the left of the impact number you wrote down earlier.
6. Multiply the I & E numbers together for each task. This is the task's impact ratio.
7. Each morning, check your calendar for events and then begin scanning down your task list, starting with your monthly PHOCUS block and then moving on to your impact ratio column looking for the highest number. Start work on that task. It's the easiest most impactful thing you can do right now. Continue working your tasks in order of impact ratio, highest number to lowest.
8. At the end of the week rewrite the PHOCUS block at the top of your new list. At the end of the month start a new PHOCUS block.
Some additional ideas:
• New incoming task for the week? Add it to your current list and give it an impact ratio.
• New task that can wait until next week? Add it to the back of your sheet of paper. This is next week's impact list. A complete system on two pages.
• Alternatively, you can use the back of this week's list to write your notes for the week and your top ten accomplishments and moments. Writing out your accomplishments and moments—the things to be grateful for—gets your brain to recognize them, and builds your confidence, your happiness, and your momentum. It builds your emotional fires for the coming week.
That's it.