There are lots of ways you can make a to-do list into something that actually gets done. Often when people get to the point when they are writing it, they are doing a brain dump. They just have to just get things down on paper. But to get to the point where you’re checking things off, you want to make it a do-able to-do list. Things need to be as easy for yourself to do as possible. So you have to break things down into tasks. We sabotage ourselves by writing down things like “Plan the anniversary party” or “Learn French.” Those are projects, not tasks and don’t belong on your to-do list.
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Momentum - Has its hands in just about everything and is incredibly important. Esp for morale. Most typical projects are really exciting at the beginning and then people tend to lose interest and fade out. Long projects eat at you and you’re not even looking to do good stuff you just want to finish things and they don’t turn out well. Create a situation where projects are short and there’s excitement and it’s a short 2 week project and it leaves people in excited mode. Break big projects into as many small projects. 2 week rule.

Planning is Vastly Overrated – 37Signals doesn’t do road maps, specs, projections. They have rough ideas internally but these aren’t shared externally. Even internally they’re not set in stone or written down. Think about what’s being done now and maybe what’s next. You set expectations too soon and things changed. Don’t want to be boxed into decisions you made 18 years ago. They don’t do design docs and functional specs ‘artifacts’ that don’t push back enough. A spec doc contains 1000 yes’es. Leads to an illusion of agreement. Everyone can read the same paragraph and think you agree. Don’t do projections like financial projections.

Interruption is the enemy of productivity – when Jason and DHH were across the pond from each other they were super productive and they did work. When DHH moved to Chicago they got a lot less done. Proximity invites collaboration. Interruptions: tap on the shoulder with a question, required meetings, shouting someone’s name, “Hey Check this out”, phones & blackberry’s. Great quote: “Average work day has been traded in for work moments.” Most people get work done in the mornings or late at night. Not that there’s more work today – just that there’s less time in the daytime. Fragmented day is not a productive day. Strategy: on Thursdays nobody talks to each other. Passive collaboration instead of active collaboration. If someone is busy they can put it aside and come to it when they’re ready. Interruption points screw your days up.

Jason Fried – Things We’ve Learned At 37Signals

1. Out-tasking (not outsourcing)
2. Systematizing any repeating processes (we will cover this in a later article)

You should have noticed that I didn’t say outsourcing. That is very important. We’ve attempted to outsource entire projects multiple times and have had numerous problems every time.

The key to efficiently getting things done in your business is out-tasking.

Out-tasking

Out-tasking at its root is simply breaking down a larger more complex project into simple pieces that can be done by a specialized third party. We’ve been doing out-tasking for years but I typically called it outsourcing. It wasn’t until I read Rich Shefren’s Internet Marketing Business Manifesto that I learned that we had actually been doing what he called out-tasking not outsourcing.

By breaking things down, you immediately notice the tasks that you don’t need to do yourself. You’ll actually find three types of tasks.

1. Tasks that should be out-tasked
2. Tasks that could be out-tasked
3. Tasks that shouldn’t be out-tasked

The hardest type to deal with is that second type. The tasks that you know you could get out-tasked but are not sure if you should. This may be because of the importance of the task or because you actually enjoy doing that task.

Just remember the more 2’s that you can make 1’s, the more time you will have to get the 3’s completed and focus on the more important aspects of your business.
Here is a quote by Rich that we’ve adopted as a foundation for how we make decisions in our business.

“All complexity is based on inherent simplicity. Elegant solutions can
be surprisingly easy to apply and phenomenally successful — but only
after ineffective traditions have been stripped away so common sense
can prevail.”
- Rich Schefren

Keep that in mind anytime you take on a new project or are struggling with slow progress or what I like to call task overload.

Every project has those certain tasks that could be done by anyone.

Remember, time is money so make sure you are treating it that way.