How To Improve Your To-Do List Template To Get Big Revenue Increases

Today, I’m going to demystify the art of the “to-do list” for you. Most people who want to be successful indeed already have one.

Sometimes they use paper, EverNote, your computers notepad, or another app… but often the results aren’t what they want. So in this article, we’re going to give you a slight shift in perspective to have your productivity from your to-do list template boost up quickly. 

Why To-Do Lists Haven’t Worked For You Yet

The truth is that to-do lists are notoriously ineffective. Even with tools for companies such as BaseCamp, productivity from to-do lists templates can be extremely temperamental.

There is an industry of to-do apps on the market right now that are trying to figure out the best “system” to get you more productivity, but with the tricks I’m going to show you to do, free of charge, I think that won’t be your concern any longer.

Now, it’s not that these things don’t work at all. There is a very good reason why you (or your company) may or may not be using a template regularly. The problem is that people pile these up with task after task and end up doing… not much at all.

If you’re like the vast majority of people with an ineffective to-do list, you want improvement, but you don’t quite know what that small switch is to make a big change in your ability to get things done.

Now, if you’re running a business and you a have a similar to-do list, it can be very expensive and cost-inefficient to have work piling up day after to day. What ends up happening is that you don’t complete crucial projects or follow through on key ideas.

I’ve seen this happen to businesses over the years many times and when the important project gets dropped, so does revenue. This is due to poor usage and planning around your to-do list.

This, of course, is unacceptable.

The Crucial Trick To Improving Your To-Do List Template

Now, I had a conversation with my mentor (currently running a $20 million business) recently on this very topic. He gave me a vital insight that changed everything for me. He said that the best solution to this “to-do list problem” is place a dollar amount on every point of your to-do list.

I’m not making this up. It’s simple but not easy, but if you do this… I guarantee your list will look a lot more appealing than it does right now.

So what you should do is place a dollar amount next to everything you’re supposed to do today. Everything on your to-do list should have a dollar amount, and then rank them in importance by dollar amount.

In simpler terms, you put the most important highest dollar amount thing on top and the least dollar amount thing on the bottom.

Now, if you end up dropping the bottom items on the list because you didn’t get to it – maybe you lose some revenue, but you don’t drop the most important money-making issues because they’re at the top of the list.

How This Trick Makes You More Money

With this simple trick, you’re in much less danger of dropping revenue-increasing opportunities because you’re handling them first. An added benefit to this process is that it works for small, medium and even sometimes large businesses. It can be converted across the board. I’ve seen it work and it’s an incredibly effective tool.

Secondly, I like to combine this with a calendar. What I do is not just add dollar amounts to my to-do items and rank them, but I also add deadlines and dates for items.

Combined with consistent prioritizing and ranking, this can be an excellent weapon in your arsenal for getting more productive.

Now, does this mean that the low dollar amount items never get done because you keep adding on the high dollar amount work? Doesn’t this mean you’ll NEVER get to anything that’s low dollar amount but it produces high dollar amount over time, like hiring someone?.

Not necessarily. Based on real-life experience, the way it ends up working out is you do the high dollar amount task early in the day when you have the most willpower and energy… and you get to the low dollar amount task later on. You’ll find it’s actually easier to do them then.

A Real-Life Test of The Trick

I showed this system to a friend of mine who’s also running a six-figure business. He began to implement it and lo and behold, he said he actually made major progress on the important high dollar work AND the low dollar tasks for a couple of reasons.

After completing all of the harder work earlier in the day and feeling a boost in productivity, the low dollar work at the end didn’t seem very difficult at all. He went and did the smaller tasks as if they were nothing.

Think of it: rather than spending the first half of your day tapping your energy, focus, and motivation on something that won’t make you the most money in a quick amount of time, you save all of that attention for the revenue-building processes.

Improve Your Quality Of Life Using This As Well

This concept can also apply to your general life outside of work as well. It’s not just for business. If it’s a nice day out, you might have a date lined up or a pleasant social event, and you’ve finished “the important stuff”… your high dollar amount work is done.

Your time is therefore freed up to actually enjoy yourself a bit and get a little bit of leisure time. You can build your social circle, you can network – anything really – yet you’ve finished what’s most important to build your business.

Your stress will be lowered, and you’ll be ready to attack the next day. The truth is the end of the day is only stressful if you haven’t finished the important things that you wanted to complete. If you missed one or two low dollar pieces of work, you usually will not find yourself that heading towards burnout because you know you handled your business.