I never consider myself a diligent person, but when it comes to paying attention to details, I am that person. When I am planning to do something, I have to know the details first. My friend and I kind of have this idea of starting a business but I refuse to start it if we don’t have enough resources and time for the branding. I said to him, “We ought to conduct several researches and we don’t just randomly name our business out of spontaneity. Branding is the Queen. Content is the King. Also, we have to have our own social media presence and a website as well.” And he replied, “Leave the web design and development to me. You do social media.” Having discussed the first step, we realised that both of us are not considered as a diligent person. Sometimes we forgot things and other times we did not keep our priorities straight. Since we love this coming-soon business and we want to succeed, we have read so many articles, watched inspiring YouTube videos and read books written by famous entrepreneurs and finally, summed it up into one final solution; the to-do list. I’m sure most of you are aware about to-do list because almost (but not all) everyone has it. However, not all people know the values that to-do list can give to those who are ambitious, especially if the to-do list is creatively made. How do we make creative to-do list to develop a successful business? Keep reading to find out!
Write down the To-Do, the Not-To-Do and the Need to Know
Before planning to write your assignments, first you need to write down what you need to do, what you should not do and what you need to know. Whatever it is that comes into your mind, write it down until you feel there is nothing left to write. It’s okay if it sounds so random at first. You can do the next step to arrange it.
Meet the MITs
After writing down your list, start arranging them from the Most Important Tasks (MITs). Make sure you’ve got the MITs listed as the top priorities. This will remind you every day that you must finish the prioritised tasks first. That way, you will keep your priorities straight and consistent.
Make it public
Well, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to show off your to-do list to everyone on social media. Make your list “known” by the people around you – your house maybe. You can do simple things like putting a sticky note on your refrigerator containing your MITs. This will let the people in your house know about your goals and when notice that you forget, they will remind you about it. This will also help you get yourself on track and motivate you to finish it.
Be specific
When you are writing a to-do list, make sure you avoid writing something like “work on research paper”. That will sound too vague to process. Instead, break it down into more specific actions. For example, write “conduct a research on competitors’ social media presence for 15 days and learn from them,” and “work on the report.”
Make unique In-game Quest-like goals
I don’t know about you, but what makes me stay interested in playing a game is the quest completing. A human mind is somewhat simple; as a human we’d like to collect things. When I see quests and the rewards I can get from finishing the quests, I feel so motivated to play the game. The reward is simple; a badge. There is something about merit badges that make me want to achieve one by one by completing the quests. Not only does this give me more badges, collecting those badges alone also makes me feel satisfied. Moreover, it’s not just about the badges. Collecting a certain number of badges will also get me promoted to the next higher level or at least boost my status in that game. Perhaps, you can also do the same thing for your to-do list. Make your to-do list fun game-like quests that you wish to achieve, only in a more serious way than just a game with an addition of some fun in it. Add some rewards like badges and treat yourself when you are one step ahead. For example, you create this badge called “The Super Owner Badge” and in order to achieve that badge, you have to complete 10 quests at the starting level. And those quests are your first MITs in your to-do list. After achieving that badge, you can move to the next level. It is fun, isn’t it? I do that too every day and it gets me motivated. If I can, you can too.
The main important thing about to-do list is your determination to do your best to finish your tasks one by one and create new plans to deal with the future. Business owners are always faced with new things in the future and the better way to overcome it is by being prepared for what is to come. Creating to-do list is one of the ways to get you prepared.