How to Set Your Top 3 Daily Tasks

Hello My Charmed Ones!

If you have been following me for a while, you have likely heard me talk about one of my major productivity and planning strategies, the Top 3 List.

The Top 3 List is a list of 3 prioritized daily tasks that you need to focus on for the day. Many women in my community come to me, asking how they can get a handle on their never ending to-do list, how they can find focus to ensure they are completing the most important tasks, and how they can make the time to work on their own personal goals alongside tasks for work, home or family life. The Top 3 list is a productivity and planning strategy that I believe addresses all three of those situations. This strategy is so impactful, in fact, that I intentionally design a Daily Top 3 List into all of my Functional Planning Inserts.

It’s a basic fact of life that for most of us in a day, to borrow a line from Elton John, “there is more to do than can ever be done.” Most of us have never ending, ever growing to do lists and when you try to organize your day by your to-do list alone, you will find that tasks are an infinite source of work that can easily drain your energy and take over the precious time you have in a day.

If you are working off this never ending list each and everyday, I can confidently say, I know that there are things you are NOT getting done off that list. And I would bet that some of the things you push off for the next day end up being priority tasks that really should have been completed today.

So, by taking the focus off your complete to-do list and instead pulling just three tasks from it to prioritize for the day, you will begin to see that by choosing those three tasks strategically, you will ensure you are always getting the most important work on your list done.

There is also a fundamental principle of productivity known as the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule. It states that just 20% of our actions create 80% of our results. That means that 20% of the things we do in a day are leading to the majority of our outcomes. So, truly, there are some tasks that are just higher impact for our days than others, and the Top 3 list gives us an opportunity each day to zero in on those few tasks that will truly yield the most results for us.

So, it would benefit all of us to start using the Daily Top 3 List as a jumping off point for our daily work. By no means does the Top 3 List mean you ONLY complete three things each day, instead these are just the tasks that really need to be prioritized.

Sounds easy, right? Choose three tasks every day and get them done, simple enough!

Well, not quite.

I will say that although this strategy is simple in theory, it’s not as easy as it seems in practice because it requires us to be very good at prioritizing. It’s not enough to choose any three tasks, this strategy only works when we choose the right 3 tasks.

I consider the ability to prioritize our tasks a mental muscle that we need to flex in order to develop it to its potential.

When you get started setting your Daily Top 3, I promise you, you are going to make some mistakes. You will list out tasks that aren’t actually priorities, you will think something is a priority but then realize your error half way through the day, and you are going to accidentally put projects on your Top 3 instead of tasks (very common.)

But, the more you use this strategy, day in and day out, you are going to improve. You will start setting a better Top 3 List and it’s going to bring you to a completely new level of productivity, focus and achievement when you start getting done the important tasks and letting go of the non-essentials.

So, to help you create a better Top 3 List, I have a few tips or prompts for you to consider when you sit down at your planner each day.

Tip #1: If you could only do 3 things today, which would make the day feel like a success? These might be tasks you are afraid to tackle but know you will feel so good when they are complete. Or these are tasks with impending due dates, or that need to be done before something else that is also important can be accomplished.

Tip #2: Choose tasks that aren’t part of the daily routine you always do. You don’t need to prioritize things that are everyday no-brainers for you because you will likely have some form of self-discipline that kicks in to ensure you get those things done anyway.

Tip #3: Choose 3 individual tasks NOT projects. A project is a collection of multiple steps or tasks that need to be accomplished, and if you put a project on your top 3, it’s going to take much more time and effort for you to complete and will undermine the effectiveness of this strategy.

I hope this post and these tips helps you to start using this simple but powerful planning and productivity strategy in your own life daily. If you are using a planner or inserts that do not give you the dedicated space to list out your Top 3 each day, I highly recommend you check out my Master Plan System of inserts. As I mentioned earlier, all of the Functional Planning Inserts I design, including those in the Master Plan System include a dedicated space for this essential planning and productivity strategy because it truly is a game changer that will upgrade the way you work each day.

Remember, for the month of February I have a discount code FEB2021 for 20% OFF all the planning inserts and tools in TheCharmedShop.com!

xoxo,