7 Takeaways From ‘The 5 Minute To-Do List Formula’ by Magnus Muller

Do you have a to-do list formula? Well, does the process involve just jotting down whatever things you want or need to get done? I don’t know about you, but my to-do list formula was exactly this way.

I am a big fan of to-do lists. I love freeing my mind of remembering all the stuff I got to do and also that feeling of crossing a thing off my list.

But these good vibes accompanied me only when I started a list or crossed off an item. Not during the whole overwhelming process of doing the tasks. And certainly not when I realise many tasks on my list are ageing badly.

Some of them would get several months old and a few of them even touched the age of a year and a half while sitting on my to-do list. For example, the task of completing the back-end of my two-pager WordPress site has been sitting on the list for over a year now.

Thanks to Magnus Muller, now I know the 5 minute to-do list formula. He explains it in this book with the help of a diagrammatic guide to complete your tasks within two weeks.

That’s the formula I am going to share with you in this article, along with the many other takeaways from the book. So, no more ageing old and cranky with your tasks.

7 Striking Lessons From ‘The 5 Minute To-Do List Formula’

1. The Problem With Other To-Do List Methods.

Muller talks about three to-do list methods in the book and explains why these methods don’t work for many people.

One of the methods is the famous 80/20 principle also known as the Pareto Principle.

In case you don’t know, the Pareto Principle talks about how 20% of your tasks brings 80% of the results. And so, you should only be focusing on this 20% and not the remaining.

He also talks about another method called the “I need, I should, I want” method by Jay Sherley. He is the designer of the web app ‘The Daily Practice’.

The technique involves defining three tasks to do and following the process daily.

One of these tasks (I need) is something that will immediately impact your life. Another is something that aligns to your long term goals (I should). And finally, the last one is something that you feel like doing to keep up your spirits high (I want).

His habit-building app ‘The Daily Practice’ works on the same method.

According to Muller, the central problem with such methods is that our ranking of importance is too broad. We usually feel everything is important.

Yet, frankly speaking, I loved the idea by Jay Shirley and am definitely going to give it a try.

Another reason Muller states is that most of us cannot differentiate between urgent and important in real-time.

Remember the story of ‘The Stones and the Jar’? Muller takes us through this story again in his book and I will too.

It’s about a professor who does a live experiment in his class. He takes a big glass jar and then puts some fist-sized stones in it until they start touching the brim.

He then asks his students if the jar is full, and they exclaim without much thought ‘Yes!’.

He then says ‘very well’ and proceeds on to throwing some small stones in the gaps left between the big stones.

The students now get excited.

Next, he drops in some sand that very smoothly goes and fits in the gaps left by the small stones.

Lastly, he pours in some water, which gets absorbed by the sand.

He then goes on explaining the lesson. He says that if you don’t put the big stones first, you can’t put them in any other time.

That’s why when filling your calendar, it’s essential to allot the required time to your big stones first — that is the significant priorities in life and only then to proceed with what may seem urgent.

These urgent tasks, in my case, are usually other people’s tasks for me. And not taking care of my priorities often makes me feel that I lack the freedom I deserve and am out of control of my life.

2. Keep a Separate ‘Someday’ List.

I had a habit of listing anything and everything on the same list. No matter if it was something I wanted to accomplish sometime months later.

What I didn’t realise was that having those things on the list created a mental block in my head. They created an unwanted pressure which made me resist the act of getting things done.

That’s why Muller emphasises on keeping a separate ‘someday’ list where you drop in the tasks that can wait.

He also says that during a weekly review of your to-do list you must keep an eye on the tasks that are being procrastinated upon. Check their age on the list. If they have been there for long, break them down or see if you even need to do them in the first place.

3. You Don’t Need to Organise What You Can Eliminate.

Being a minimalist myself, I love this ideology. And I am glad, Muller talked about it in his book too.

Here’s where prioritising plays a big role. He talks about the method of the Eisenhower Matrix to define what’s urgent, important and what you can do later, delegate or better, eliminate.

He says eliminating tasks is always better than marking them complete because it means you save yourself the effort and time as well.

4. The Concept of Micromotions.

The core of the 5 minute to-do list formula is breaking down tasks.

Most of us would define projects as tasks not realising the big difference. For example, I have had ‘update my website’ as a task for quite a long time on my list now.

But it’s not a task, it’s a full-fledged project.

It includes tasks like check out other writer’s websites, find what to update, write new copy for section X, write new copy for section Y, add new testimonials, optimise new images, add new images etc.

And doing all that is not a very easy task and my brain knew it subconsciously. So it was resisting the act of even starting on the so-called task.

To make it simpler for us, Muller describes the method of Micromotions.

These are just 5 minute tasks that make up your bigger tasks aka projects.

The idea and the term were proposed by SARK, an inspirational writer. She says, the method makes it easier for getting things off the list as she can always concentrate for 5 minutes if not more.

And I think it’s also because it takes away the doubt your brain may otherwise have, of how much time a particular task will take. Read on to know why this concept is crucial.

5. The Theory of the Boss and Assistant.

A big part of the 5 minute to-do list formula is setting up your to-do list in a way you would do it for your assistant on the first day of her job.

Imagine, you are a boss. Now, you wouldn’t tell your assistant to organise the files on your desk. If you do that, you are just making life tougher for both of you.

Why? Because well, she will have questions. Loads of them. She would want to know how you want the files to be organised? Alphabetically or by date? The latest one first or the latest one last? You want to separate the completed files or want them in the same pile as the incomplete ones?

Imagine her calling you, again and again, to ask these questions while you are in a meeting. And if she doesn’t disturb you, the task doesn’t get done on time.

Similarly, your to-do list must specify everything that your assistant might ask.

Making sure of this removes the thought from the action. And thus, makes doing tasks much easier and effective when you get to them, which means you don’t procrastinate on them any more.

Specifying your tasks well will also require you to use active verbs in your sub-tasks. For example, instead of saying ‘Contact Molly for the Report’, the task should say ‘Call Molly for the Report’.

Notice how by changing one word you remove the question of ‘What does Contact mean?’

After all, Contact can imply to mail, message, call or in-person meeting.

6. Effective Weekly Reviews

Now, if you are a productivity freak, I am assuming you are aware of the famous weekly review system that David Allen talks about in his book ‘Getting Things Done’.

My old to-do list method did involve weekly reviews. But, the problem with my reviews was that they happened unconsciously.

I would glance at it, see what went well and what didn’t and then never take any further action.

But, this incomplete process takes away the whole point of weekly reviews, right?

That’s why it’s so important to ask the right questions and also patiently answer these when you are sitting for that weekly review session of your to-do list.

Thankfully, Muller outlines 7 critical questions for us, making it easier to go through the process. These include:

• Did I define my objectives wrong?
• Did I lack motivation? Did I make excuses not to do it?
• Did it take me longer than expected?

7. How to Train Your Mind to Be Better Focused on the Task at Hand?

Now, all these tasks have to be done by the brain, and somehow it still finds excuses. Be it in the form of external distractions or internal. So, what to do to get rid of this obstacle?

Well, Muller has explained that too. He says the reason you lose to any distractions is because that’s how you have trained your brain to be.

When you multitask or switch between tasks like checking your mail and writing that article, you are training your mind to get distracted.

The way around this is to do the opposite.

Train your brain to focus on tasks.

All you need to do is find activities that are specific and don’t take much time and then be completely aware of what you do while performing these tasks.

The tasks can be anything like brushing your teeth, reading an article online, listening to a podcast or organising the files on your desktop.

He also specifies some rules for this process. For example, you are not allowed to choose discarded activities like checking your mail or unhealthy activities like smoking.

Summing Up

Overall a wonderful book, Magnus Muller’s ‘The 5 Minute To-Do List Formula’ helps us understand the intricacies of to-do lists, which we rarely bother to understand. After all, it feels just like a list of to-dos.

But as you now know, there’s a lot that goes behind and makes to-do lists effective.

The formula, in short, asks you to:

- Set your priorities right and allot time to them first and then focus on the urgent stuff.

- Break down your tasks into preferably 5 minute chunks.

- Write them like a boss and execute them like an assistant.

- Perform weekly reviews.

- Train your mind to keep distractions away.

Muller has done a good job specifying each element of the formula with awesome examples.

If you want to understand the concepts better, I highly suggest you go through the book yourself. It’s a quick read so, I am sure you won’t find it difficult to cross off your to-do list.

Find the book “The 5 minute to-do list: A diagrammatic guide to complete your tasks within two weeks” here at Amazon.

And if you have any to-do list tips of your own, don’t forget to drop them in the comments below.