Why Your To-Do List is Broken and How To Fix It

Managing an auto repair business is never easy. There are some tasks you love to do but quite a few you really hate. And you’ve probably got both on a mile-long list of things that need to be done.

So many “time-management” experts tell us about the importance of having a To-Do list. But I don’t think this is the best advice.

You see, the biggest problem with To-Do lists is they’re long, daunting, and stressful. Staring at all those items puts pressure on you to tackle everything at once. Or shove the whole list off till tomorrow because some new fire demands to be put out.

Rather, I came up with an effective plan to do away with the idea of just making a list and checking off tasks as they’re done. It’s still okay to create a list, but it’s more important to prioritize the activities and then schedule them.

That’s right, schedule your activities!

Use your Outlook, Google or even a paper calendar to enter all the items from your prioritized list. But don’t schedule everything for tomorrow! The goal is to have one or two major tasks, as well as a few small ones, on the calendar for each and every day.

You may have to adjust your activities as more important things come up. That’s just the nature of running a company. But spreading out your tasks over the course of several days or weeks relieves the tension of staring at your dreaded To-Do list.

Here’s a few more tips:

• Always program those big, important items first – even if they’re the ones you hate the most. You’ll have a greater sense of accomplishment and you’ll see results sooner.
• Don’t try to do several things at once because multi-tasking just doesn’t work.
• Remember to set reminders for each morning.
• Finally, if a few activities keep getting pushed back over and over and over again, then you must commit to either doing them now, delegating them, or dropping them altogether.

Take advantage of whatever calendar you use and schedule everything that needs to be done. You’ll reduce your stress and have a better chance of actually doing it all.