I just did it myself. I jotted down my top priorities on one of the 5×7 pads I keep handy. My goal was to help me stay focused on the top few things I definitely wanted to finish today.

Choosing those top few priorities is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong.

But it was a mistake. It was a mistake because I did not look at my calendar first. Given my scheduled appointments, there is no way I could accomplish those three tasks and keep my existing commitments.

You see, we all have the same problem. There are only 24 hours in a day. None of us have the power to change that.

There is a pretty simple solution, though. Avoid to-do lists. If you want to accomplish something, get it on the calendar.

It’s tough, I know, because there are never enough slots on the calendar for everything we hope to accomplish.

But that’s the whole point. You will never finish everything you’d like to finish. Not unless you have zero aspirations or have totally mastered the art of managing your priorities. For the rest of us, using a calendar instead of a to-do list forces us to make those tough decisions. To-do lists don’t do that because we can always add more items to the list.

When you switch to full calendar-based planning, increase your likelihood of success by following these best practices:

• Use a calendar with little boxes so you can’t cram too much into them.
• Leave plenty of white space to accommodate unavoidable interruptions, overflows, and breaks.
• Don’t sacrifice strategic priorities to immediate priorities.
• Reserve regular long blocks of time for tasks that require concentration.
• Practice saying ‘no.’
• Cancel or postpone appointments and meetings that aren’t aligned with top priorities.

Remember:

• There are only 6 ways to deal with overload and only one, the most common, is ineffective.
• “Too much to do” and “not enough time” are victim words.
• If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities.

If you’ve read this far and you still have to-do lists, it is time to relabel them with “Someday Maybe.”