4 Steps to Mastering 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?

4 steps to mastering your to-do list:

I have recently started following a simple 4-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 4 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.

2. Delegate

The second D is Delegate. Go through your list and delegate everything you don’t need to be doing.

There are some things you need to do. But there are many things that although they need to get done, you don’t have to be the one to do it.

What is on your to-do list that somebody else could be doing for you?

If you want to make a bigger impact in your ministry, you have to get better at delegating.

Sometimes I can feel guilty about delegating things. I feel like I am being lazy asking someone else to do something that I am capable of doing myself (even though I am pressed to find the time to do it).

Other times I struggle to delegate because I am a control freak. I could do it better myself. I have a certain way I want it to be done. So I hold on to a task that I should give away, because I am too insecure as a leader to trust others to help.

A pastor’s job is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12)

If you aren’t delegating, you aren’t doing your job.

When you delegate you are equipping and empowering other people in your church to use their God-given gifts to make a bigger impact.

When you fail to delegate, you rob someone of an opportunity to do what God has gifted them to do.

By yourself, you can accomplish very little. With the help of other staff and volunteers, there is no limit to how much your church could accomplish.

Give away as much of your to-do list as you can.

I love how Andy Stanley says it: “Only do what only you can do.” Delegate the rest.

I understand that sometimes there are things you want to delegate but you haven’t found the right person to hand it off to yet. That’s OK. Keep praying that God will help you find the right person.

3. Date

As you look at your list, there are just some things that you have to do. There is no other option. There is no easy fix. These things need to get done and you have no choice but to buckle down and do the work.

But wait! Before you begin working aimlessly, you need to focus.

The third D is Date. Go through your remaining list and assign a date to every task.

Most task managers have an option to mark the date a task is due. Mark each task with the absolute latest day it can be accomplished by.

Although this may seem like extra work, it really helps you prioritize and focus your to-do list so that you get everything done in time.

By assigning dates, you can then see what must be done today, tomorrow, in a week, or in a month.

This helps so you don’t waste time today doing what doesn’t’ need to be done for a week. This isn’t procrastinating, it’s prioritizing. Procrastination is laziness. I’m talking about focused work.

Once you get done what needs to be done today, you can work on getting ahead on future tasks.

4. Do

The final D is Do. You have narrowed and focused your list, It’s time to get to work.

Go through your list and start knocking things out as fast and effective as you can.

Try making a game out of it. Time yourself and try to beat the clock. I use an app on my phone called 30/30 for this. (read more about it here.)

Set a time limit for how long you will allow yourself to work on a task. You will be surprised at just how much you can get done when the clock is ticking.

This also keeps you from wasting too much time on only one task.

For example, it is easy for me to get lost in studying for a sermon for hours. But at some point, if I don’t stop working on my sermon, I won’t get all of the other important things done that being in ministry requires. Having an allotted time for sermon preparation keeps me focused.

There you have it. The four Ds to mastering your To-Do’s.

It’s working great for me. Hope it works just as well for you.