This is the third tip in a series of techniques to help you take control of your time, feel great about each week, and watch those weeks add up to impressive results. The key to each successful week is two-fold:

1. Identify what would constitute a successful week
2. Make it happen

This tip tackles the first and helps you shrink the list to the things that will make a difference. 

Productivity Booster #3: Eliminate the ‘Shoulds’
Take a good look at your To Do list. How many of those items are “shoulds”? You should do it, you’re supposed to, you feel obligated, you’re driven by guilt? The “shoulds” in our lives are energy suckers. They weigh heavily upon us and often provide no benefit to anyone. Meanwhile, they tend to become permanent fixtures on the Undone List.

Take a good look at each “should.” Why do it? How would it make a difference to the success of your business or the quality of your life, relationships, and future? What if you ignored it? Would anyone care? Would anyone else even notice? Are you doing it because you always have? Are you doing it to measure up to someone else’s standard?

If you can’t find the value, don’t do it! Throw it off the list!

Interestingly enough, as you begin to consider whacking each “should,”, you may suddenly identify a good reason to keep it on your list or you may ask some questions that reveal its value. Furthermore, this process of ferreting out the value may lead you to great shortcuts – ways to do less without losing the best part.

And as you discover the hidden value of a long dreaded “should,” you will likely also discover the energy and motivation to get it done!

Nonetheless, there are more “shoulds” than can be completed in any lifetime. You lose when the “shoulds” win.

Even with these warnings, some people have trouble recognizing the “shoulds” in their life. Here is a technique that can help. Separate your typical To Do list into activities that energize versus activities that drain. Many of the latter are “shoulds.”

But not all! If an activity is draining, it is a prime target for dismissal, delegation, outsourcing, or redefinition. Stay tuned for future productivity tips addressing everything that can’t simply be dismissed!