Getting todo to done
Apr 10th, 2007 by francis
Think of the five most important things that you have to do. Write them down on a piece of paper. It will be useful if you try and prioritise these tasks – write them down, most important task first. Make a real effort to express each task as a single action that can be done without reference to any other task, an action that is clearly and plainly presented, with any supporting information. For example, do not write “phone Jerome about that thing.” Write “Phone Jerome on 382-4592 to ask him and friend (maybe dog too?) to go on meandering trip down river in boat.” When your list is complete, review it.
Then, simply give it to someone else and try to persuade them to do it all for you.
It’s best if you have some kind of power over the person you are asking. Perhaps they report to you at work, in which case you can pretend to yourself that it will look good on their CV and inculcate some useful transferable skills. Perhaps they are the friend for whom you swore blind last weekend that yes, he slept on your couch on Saturday after a night in watching the Belgian third division play-offs on satellite TV. Perhaps they are one of your children, and will believe you when you say that if you have to do these tasks yourself your arms will actually fall off, and then you won’t be able to pour out a drink for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve and he will take offence and never ever ever visit this house again.
If you are not fortunate enough to have such a person, or you do but have too many scruples to contemplate delegation, try stopping a stranger on the street, handing them the list, and telling them that they have to do all of the things on it, right now.
If they look at you in that way that people look at the muttering man on the bus when he sits next to them and asks why Benny’s gone, gone, oh he’s gone, then look up and down the street, as if you are afraid of being followed, and ask them in a low voice if they have ever seen the programme 24. Then say, well, it’s a bit like that, and I’ve only got an hour and ten minutes left, no time to explain, but for the love of God don’t let the whole world down.
You’ll find that you rip through your todo list in no time at all, which leaves plenty of time for sitting in a chair watching entire menageries form and grow and disappear in the clouds. Bonus points for monkeys.