18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman Page B

happens when we’ve got too many things to do. We look busy. We seem to be moving. But in reality, we get very little done.
    In those moments, we need a way to disperse the fog of overwhelm. We need to break down the tasks into chunks and begin to work through them.
    Anne Lamott describes this moment beautifully in her book
Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
. “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day.We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’ ”
    That’s great advice. It’s like paying down credit card debt. You may have a huge, intimidating amount to pay. But there’s only one way to responsibly handle it: week by week. Each week, put a little aside—more than the interest and more than you’re adding to the card—and eventually it will get paid off.
    But our lives are more scattered and complex than a report on birds or credit card debt. So we need another level of organization, not to make sure that
everything
gets done but to make sure the
right
things get done.
    That’s where a structured to-do list can be helpful. But it has to be simple—otherwise, creating your to-do list becomes one more thing on your to-do list. Thankfully, you’ve already got the structure.
    You already know the five (or so) things your year is about. Well, those things need to be the foundation—the organizing map—for your day. Because, like paying down credit card debt, the way to make an impact on your areas of focus for the year is by spending your time focusing on those areas. Every day.
    So when you create your to-do list, do it in the categories of your five things. Then add a sixth category,titled
The Other 5%
. Mine, for a particular day, looks like this:
Do Great Work with Current Clients
Call John to set up interviews.
Create feedback report for Lily.
Design strategy offsite for X, Inc.
Set up travel for Portland trip.
Create plan for coaching session with Larry.
Attract Future Clients
Call Paul re: retainer.
Write and Speak About My Ideas
Write blog post for this week.
Write book chapter on to-do list.
Set up meeting with speaking agent.
Call Sally re: Hawaii conference.
Be Present with Family and Friends
Plan date night with Eleanor.
Invite Stacy and Howie over for dinner.
Call Jessica.
Be home by 6 to put kids to bed.
Have Fun and Take Care of Myself
Go to yoga class.
The Other 5%
Change oil in car.
Buy a new printer.
Pay bills.
Check out bags for MacBook Air.
Call Aly re: her leadership presentation.
    This structure helps me carve up my overwhelm into manageable, digestible chunks. And it ensures I’m spending my time where I should. Because saying I want to focus on something is meaningless unless I actually spend my time there. And my to-do list is my plan for where I’m going to spend my time.
    But this structure offers more than simplicity and focus and a way to get started. It also offers information about how I’m treating each area of focus, how they stack up relative to one another, and the kinds of things I’m doing to move forward in them.
    If you look above, you’ll see that, for this particular day, my
Do Great Work with Current Clients
activities far outweigh my
Attract Future Clients
activities. That’s fine for a particular day. But if I notice that it’s a trend—that for the entire month my current-client work is full and my future-client work is empty—then I know I need to begin to generate activity in that area if I want to move forward and grow my business.
    This is particularly useful when trying to decide between two competing demands