2 lists that have transformed my productivity

I’m a listmaker. I love lists and I love crossing stuff off of them. I keep an ongoing list of my projects on a corkboard in my office and I have a daily list of to-dos/next actions that I work through. Very GTD, I guess.

And since 2010 is off to a strong start and there are indications that things will be getting busier around here, I need to do what I can to manage it all a little better. So I’ve added 2 more lists that I create each week:

1. I list the stuff I don’t want to do: The stuff that I don’t like doing but it needs to get done. It’s a list that proactively identifies my procrastination so I can do something about it before I procrastinate. The reason I use a separate list for this (instead of just highlighting them on my current list) is that it gives me a way to observe if there are specific projects or clients that I tend to procrastinate on more frequently).

2. I list the things that really get under my skin: A prospect who is getting too aggressive. A long over-due receivable. A vendor who doesn’t deliver. That kind of thing. And then I do something about it. I make it a goal to clear off my “Annoyed” list each week. In doing so, it keeps the things that annoy me pretty low, and increases how much I love what I do (which is already quite high).