A Better To-Do List

What’s better than a to-do list?

If it’s one thing engineers know how to do it’s make list. Checklist for calculations. Checklist for quality control. Checklist for submittals. Checklist for invoicing.

Take a look at any engineers desk and you’ll see hand drawn check boxes with to-do items on some scrap of paper somewhere. You’ve also probably tried several ways to manage these growing list of tasks with no one system matching your needs. The iPhone app didn’t help and the fancy notecards fell short.

So what’s better than a to-do list. It’s a list with ETCs. ETC means Estimate to Complete and here’s how to use it. Next time you exhaust yourself making one of these list, scribble next to the item an ETC for that task.

This is what it may look like:

1. “Compile invoice. Email to Client X (30minutes)”
2. “Setup project directory for 65355(1 hr)”
3. “Engineering report for 23674. (4hr)”

This way as you’re scheduling your day you can prioritize the larger task first when your energy levels are highest and the menial task later when you’re at a lower operating speed.

Every so often I lose the discipline of planning this way and I have to pull myself back into formation. Once I’m back on the system things seem to hum along splendidly.

Action Item: Try it out.