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Change your perspective - chip away at massive tasks.

jhmorris says:

I have tasks on my to-do list which have been on there forever, I have no inclination to do anything about them. I’m blind to them.

Some of these are massive tasks but can’t sensibly be broken down into subtasks. My example is the formidable sounding “File every piece of paper in the study”. I replaced this scary task with a more achievable repeating task that chips away at the problem. In this case the task is “File some paper in the study”, which I have set to repeat after 1 week.

I now have an achievable task on my list and the satisfaction of completing the short term task regularly while moving towards achieving my long-term goal – a vast improvement on the do-nothing-because-it’s-all-too-difficult situation I had before.

Does anyone have any more tips for re-assessing tasks which have become stuck on lists?

Posted at 9:15pm on January 6, 2010

sarah.kottke Pro says:

I like this idea. It would be nice to be able to group tasks together or make sub-tasks.

Posted 2 years ago

emily (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi jhmorris,

Just wanted to let you know that your tip is this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner. We've upgraded your RTM account to have a free year of Pro. :)

Posted 2 years ago

jhmorris says:

Thanks Emily, that's great news!

Posted 2 years ago

mymindsonfire says:

Here is how I handle large tasks. First, I set the task to be repeating, then I use the notes section to create a list of all of the next actions. If the project has multiple phases, I will create additional notes -- one for each phase than can be deleted as the project progresses. Hope this helps.

Posted 2 years ago

mymindsonfire says:

Here is how I handle large tasks. First, I set the task to be repeating, then I use the notes section to create a list of all of the next actions. If the project has multiple phases, I will create additional notes -- one for each phase than can be deleted as the project progresses. Hope this helps.

Posted 2 years ago

sashas Pro says:

Great tip!
Not to sound like an HR person (I'm not) but this tip would most definitely fulfills the "A" in S.M.A.R.T. goals: Attainable/Achievable:

http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html

The way RTM works best is if the S.M.A.R.T. goal standards are used when adding tasks. Otherwise it just becomes a place to store tasks that never get done.

Posted 2 years ago

joyce.giraud says:

i just get it done.. no sense in procrastinating.

Posted 2 years ago

vsonicmu says:

This is a great tip

Posted 2 years ago

road2ruin Pro says:

@sashas

Your webpage http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html is infected by a virus:

HTML-Scriptvirus HTML/Infected.WebPage.Gen

Posted 2 years ago

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