5 Ways to Remove Items From Your To-Do List

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Removing items from your to-do list is a helpful skill for when you feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Like any other skill, your ability to do this can be improved through learning and practice. Try these strategies.

1. Quit earlier.

People like to emphasize grit and not quitting, but quitting early is a skill that is also worth practicing.

Examples:

• A book that you're not enjoying.
• When you arrive at an event to find a long line that isn't worth standing in.

When you practice this skill say to yourself, "I'm practicing the skill of quitting early."

To quit earlier, you need to overcome the sunk costs bias, such as if you've already invested in driving to an event.

2. Identify behavior or activities that don't have as much value as they used to.

Certain activities (e.g., traditions or networking events) may have had more value in your life or career at other times than they do now. Update your view of their value.

3. Identify activities where the same end could be achieved in a much easier way.

Examples:

• You want to make someone feel special, so you plan an elaborate way to do that. However, a much easier way would also make the person feel special. Choose the easier way you could accomplish this in the next five minutes so that you can take the more elaborate way off your list.
• You could reduce your workload if your child tidied away their toys on their own. If it's difficult to get them to do that, however, they could more readily do dishes. Both reduce what you need to do.

4. Simplify, then simplify again.

Perfectionists often need to constantly ask themselves, "How could I simplify my approach to this?"

• If your urge is to make 10 points, make 5.
• Consider your A, B, and C goals. In essence, A goals are your high-priority, must-achieve objectives, B goals are important but not at the same level of urgency, and C goals are additional aspirations that would be nice to accomplish if time and resources permit.
• Master the art of creating less elaborate work that is better than more complicated work. Channel your perfectionism into this skill instead.
• If circumstances were different, what would be good enough? This question can help you identify when a simpler approach would actually be good enough now—for example, choosing not to rewrite someone else's work.

5. Stop chasing cows and build a fence.

My Psychology Today colleague Seth Gillihan gave me a great example this morning of how he configured his dehumidifier to auto-drain rather than doing it manually.

Sometimes fence building feels too overwhelming. It's easier to keep doing what we've always done. Ask yourself, "When in my week do I have the most energy for fence building?"

Consider the idea that practice doesn't make perfect, and practice makes permanent. We all have habits of doing things that we've outgrown or don't need to do. Without intervention, without deliberately changing the habit, we keep doing things the same way. This can lead to a bloated to-do list.

Try the strategies mentioned to give your to-do list a trim.

Since I don't want to add multiple items to your to-do list with this post, choose only one strategy you'd like to try now from those mentioned. How could one of the strategies mentioned immediately help you quickly eliminate an item from you to-do list?