Do you have a never-ending list of things to do in your business? If you do, how do you manage them all?

I am asking you this direct question because I am about to go insane with the lists, schedules, diaries and post it notes that I have in place for my business.

Perhaps your to-do lists have lengthened simply because there is more to do. For many, the to-do list – whether written or drawn – now suffers from a sort of infinite scroll because we spend all our time online. The idea of reaching the end of it can be unimaginable.

Purging your email inbox, managing your online passwords, booking your travel for local business trips on the train, in the car, on a plane, navigating online customer service portals, answering customer surveys, checking your luggage for flights… it’s endless.

And while technology can make life easier and more convenient, it can also melt away our time in so many ways. So, what do you use Apps or paper diary?

Online lists of tasks prey on your attention and time just because they are an available option. If you don’t do lists online, you need to do them on your phone, or on a notepad or diary. So, what works best for one person could be the worst way for someone else.

It’s a shame there isn’t a universal scheduling platform that every person could use in the same way. Gosh, imagine that…. “I’m waiting for someone to chip in and say, Monday or capterra etc!” These are great platforms, but not everyone utilises data and lists in the same way. Do people born in the 1970’s – yes, that decade where no one wants to say the year they were born – operate differently to Generation Z or the Millennials? Are the thought processes different? Or do we all just think the same way when it comes to using and managing lists for business?

The important, yet trivial, place where your various obligations converge is the to-do list. For a long time now I have felt that we always have so much to do – but in the past few months, this feeling seems to have become more common and intense everyime I need to create a new list.

What are your thoughts?

Written by Sonny Cutting – Sussex Business Show