Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips and Personal Productivity Tools

Has your to-do list grown too large and cumbersome? Do you dread looking at all the work it represents? Then take a tip for culling your tasks from the Roman army: decimate your to-do list.

In Roman times, decimation was a tool to keep the military obedient. If a legion became mutinous, commanders executed one out of every ten soldiers to punish the group. (deci- from the Latin meaning ‘one tenth’).

Your to-do list is a tool that should work for you — it should help you get stuff done. If your to-do list no longer follows your orders, decimate it: kill off one in ten of the tasks lurking there. While the Romans forced the troops to randomly draw lots to decide their fate, you’re intentionally looking for two kinds of targets: low-value tasks and time-consuming tasks.

First, the low value items. Is there something on your list that won’t bring you much benefit? Kill it. You should limit your to-do list to tasks that must get done and tasks that you want to get done. Kill off to-do items that are just there because you feel that you should do them.

Second, the time-consuming items. Look for big, fat, slow-moving tasks. If an item on your to-do list will take a long time to complete ask yourself a difficult question: ‘is there something better I could do with this time instead?’ If there is, knock that item off.

If you can find a task that’s both low value and time consuming, don’t hesitate to strike the mortal blow.

After decimation you’ll find, as the Romans did, that your newer, slimmer list is much more useful and ready to follow your orders.

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Header photograph by Dave-F