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4 Steps to Master Your To-Do List

Ministry is never finished.

There is so much to do. And there is always more to be done!

You could always study more, pray more, plan more, email more, Facebook more, meet more, write more … more. more. more.

If you aren’t careful, your to-do list can get out of control fast.

Before you know it, your to-do list is longer than your ability to do it.

So how do you regain control of your work? How do you manage the ever-growing list of things to do?

Four steps to mastering your to-do list:

I have recently started following a simple four-step system for getting my enormous to-do list under control. In no time I have seen a huge boost to my productivity.

And, yes, all four steps start with a D.

1. Delete

There are some things on your list that aren’t critical. These things don’t actually move the needle at all for your ministry.

Maybe you do them because you have always done them. Maybe you do them because you feel pressured to do them. Maybe you even do them because you enjoy doing them. But, in the end, if these things didn’t get done, nobody would really notice.

The first D is Delete. Go through your to-do list and delete all the things that you don’t need to be wasting your time on.

The things I have to delete most are the things that I want to do some day, but don’t have the time to do right now.

These are usually great ideas of things I could do. The problem is, they don’t belong on my already crowded to-do list.

These items need to go in a separate ideas list somewhere else—something I can get to some day when I have time.

Be brutal and honest with your list. Do you really need to do this? If not, it is just clogging up your list and making you feel more overwhelmed and unproductive. Get rid of it.