The legendary modern architect Mies van der Rohe once said that God is in the details.
I have a feeling that by “details” he meant something loftier than the hodge-podge of to-do lists and Post-it notes most of us deal with in the course of our daily work lives. It’s certainly a challenge to characterize the dozens of fragmented action items floating around in one’s head as sacred.
Anyway, you’re not alone if you find the welter of tasks you confront overwhelming. It seems that virtually all managers and executives keep daily to-do lists, yet almost half do not get half the items done.
According to a survey by the Net Future Institute, a New Hampshire- based research firm focusing on the future of e-business and business in general, about 65 percent of the executives queried have daily lists containing six to 20 items. Almost 33 percent keep an 11-20- item list. And about 13 percent of executives have a list that contains 21-40 items.
Does the work get done?
Almost no executives – 0.6 percent – complete their daily lists, no matter the size. Under half – 46 percent – complete less than half of their items. And just over half – 54 per cent – complete more than one-half of their lists. Just 17.9 percent would receive what you might consider a passing grade, completing more than 70 percent of their respective lists daily.
Doesn’t it make you feel better knowing that even guys pulling down tens of millions of dollars a year in salary and bonuses, guys with MBAs from top schools, guys who fly in corporate jets and do deals – the guys the rest of us working schnooks think have it made – are bogged down in details, too?
Maybe it’s terribly petty of me, but I find the survey’s results heartening. No one – not even those our society considers its best and brightest – can get around to all the “stuff” there is to do. Sure, we can learn better self-management skills, take courses in prioritization and list making, and read books about organization. And all that probably helps. But the truth is, most of us are overworked and constantly juggling too many tasks. It’s no wonder people north of 50 start worrying that their forgetfulness might be the onset of Alzheimer’s. I bet the truth is less dramatic – we’re just overloading our short-term mental “floppy disks” with too many bits and bytes of useless data.
Rather than offer another to-do list of ways to combat the problem, here are three points you can read, consider and promptly forget:
First, most of the stuff on any to-do list will be meaningless six months from now, let alone six years from now. If there’s anything on your list that you don’t get to today, chances are it won’t be a calamity if you get it done tomorrow.
Second, celebrate your accomplishments. Those of us who work for large organizations know that actually completing any task is a minor miracle. When you check an item off your list, luxuriate in the feeling of satisfaction.
Finally, there’s a name for a person without a to-do list – a corpse. As long as we’re alive, there’s stuff we’ve haven’t gotten to yet.
(C) Copyright 2001 Evan Cooper. Syndicated by Paradigm News, Inc.
