When the to-do list becomes too long and confusing, it's time to go through all the items again and remove what is no longer relevant. Most likely, you will find tasks that can be postponed, delegated to someone else, or not done at all.
Ask yourself one simple question: "If I don't complete this task by the end of the week (month, year), will I be comfortable"? If the answer is yes, the project can be safely moved to the "Do it someday" list or deleted forever.
This method is suitable not only for personal, but also for work matters. If you want to pay less attention to a project or abandon it, discuss it with your boss and determine priorities together.
Another factor to keep in mind is expectations. They can be internal (coming from ourselves) and external (coming from others), and they should also be monitored and discussed. It is better to honestly assess what you can do and what you can't do, what you want to do, and what you are definitely not interested in. This way you can make sure that you meet expectations.
Usually, all tasks can be grouped depending on the source from which they come: e-mail, work computer, calls, everyday life, and so on. When the to-do list from one source gets particularly long, it's time to sort it out.
For example, you perform several professional tasks on your work computer. Try to separate them by programs, for example, "Word projects", "Adobe Premiere Pro projects", "Excel projects". Yes, there will be more lists, but they will be much shorter, and it will be easier for you to navigate.
Splitting long to-do lists into shorter and more convenient ones is possible not only by sources. Any criterion will do — the time you spend on tasks, the amount of energy they will take away from you, the urgency or type of action. The main thing is to make it easy for you to choose the next thing you need to do.
Too small cases, on the contrary, can be combined to increase efficiency. Create a separate list of "quick things" that take no more than 5 minutes, for example, write an email to a client or copy text to a document for editing. These tasks can be completed at the end of the day or at any other time when there is not enough energy for something big and important.
