George Kao shows how to handle overwhelming to-do lists with three steps: set a time block for a task category, trim it down to only the must-dos, then bring intention and virtue like wisdom or courage to the work itself.
The way that I deal with the many projects and tasks in my business is a method called Capture, categorize and calendar. I've written about this before and I'll link to the blog post about Capture categorized calendar in the notes of this video. But today I want to talk to you about what happens when I sit down and work on my business for a particular category of items and I have just so many things in that category to do. Maybe I have just lots of marketing tasks I need to do or I need to follow up with lots of clients or whatever it may be. How do I deal with a long list of tasks, in other words? Well, I have a method to share with you. It's called time it, trim it, transform it. So ttt. Okay, and here's what I mean by that. I first time it, meaning I look at how much time I have to work on this category of tasks. How much time do I have to work on my marketing? Right now maybe I only have 2 to 4pm to work on my marketing. Great. Alright, that's what I'm gonna do and that's how much time I have. Two hours. The next one is trim it. Trim it means to trim the list of possible marketing tasks that I could do in this time period of 2 to 4pm what must I get done in this time period? Okay, so I trim the list until I find just the few items that I definitely want to get done. So I trim it and then finally transform it. Now as I do the tasks, I try to do it from a place. I try to remember the deeper meaning behind all of work, which for me is to bring more virtue to the moment, to bring more wisdom, to bring more love, maybe to bring more gracefulness or beauty, courage, humility, whatever may be that I'm focusing on in terms of virtues. Transform it. Bring that intentionality to it. So it's not just about getting things done, but it's about transforming yourself as you do the work. So with the long list of tasks, time how much time it, trim it, transform it. Time how much time you have to do things, trim it until you are doing just the most important things in that time that you have. And then transform the work so that it's of deeper meaning than just getting things done. Time to trim it and transform it. Try it out and let me know how it goes for you.
