THE RULE OF THREE FOR PRODUCTIVITY

WHAT IS THE RULE OF THREE?

I am currently listening to the book Hyper Focus – How To Be More Productive In a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey. In the book, Chris talks about a productivity tip referred to as “the rule of three”. This isn’t something he came up with. He mentions where he had learned about it, but unfortunately, I don’t recall. When I heard the idea, I really loved it and thought it would be great to share.

The rule states that you write down just three things that you want to accomplish this day, this week, and this year. By allowing only three things on the list, you are forced to really think about what is most important. Having only three things to focus on helps you stay focused on getting those things done. Otherwise, we can end up feeling overwhelmed with a huge list of things to do. That often causes us to procrastinate and get much less done because we can’t decide what should be done first.

FOUR STEPS TO USING THE RULE OF 3

Start every day by first deciding what you will focus on today. Test yourself throughout the day to make sure you remember what those three things are. Pay attention to how long each task takes to help improve future time estimates. Acknowledge your achievements.

DECIDE WHAT TO FOCUS ON TODAY

This can be done first thing in the morning or the night before. I haven’t really started using the rule of 3 yet, but I do something similar at work. At the end of each day, I look to see what I have left on my to-do list. Then I decide what is most important to focus on the next day. That is all that I put in my planner for the following day. When I get to work, I don’t have to take time to think about what to work on, I can get right to it. It’s really the same idea with the rule of 3. You want to pick 3 things either the night before or first thing in the morning that you will focus on that day.

When deciding what three things you will focus on be sure to consider your other appointments for the day. For example, if you are picking personal things to accomplish today be mindful of how much time you actually have. If you are working a full day and have a dentist appointment today, you will have to pick some things that are less time-consuming. Maybe, a quick phone call that really needs to be made? If you have the entire day free, you can pick some things that are more involved and time-consuming.

TEST YOURSELF THROUGHOUT THE DAY

If you are setting 3 things to achieve in a day you will want to make sure you actually remember what those things are. We all have days when we make a list of what we are going to do and then let the day get taken from us with other things. Sometimes there is no way to control what other important things might come up. But, often the other things that come up are not really super important. Maybe you might get sucked into checking emails. Or you start pulling everything out of a cabinet when putting something away because you feel the urgent need to get it reorganized.

There are many distractions and other things that can happen during the day to keep us from staying focused on the 3 things we wanted to accomplish. Testing yourself throughout the day to make sure you remember what your three priorities are will help keep you on task.

PAY ATTENTION TO HOW LONG EACH TASK TAKES YOU

It can be difficult to determine how long certain tasks will take to complete. This is especially true if you have not tracked the time before. Often we think something like doing the dishes takes much longer than it actually does. But then for other tasks, we vastly underestimate the time. When we are trying to set 3 priorities for the day, it is important to get the time estimates correct or we may be setting unrealistic goals.

It might be difficult at first to get a good estimate on how long something might take. But, if you pay attention as you are doing those things, you will have that info for the future. Today you might have too much on your plate because the three things you chose take too much time when you combine them all. But, if you pay attention to how much time each one took, you can plan more appropriately in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS

It feels great to be able to check things off of our to-do list. Even if you only got one of your three things done today, make sure to acknowledge it. That one thing you had on your list was important because you picked it as one of the three things you really wanted to get done today. So, whether you get one of the things done, or you get all three things done acknowledge it. Sometimes we don’t think to acknowledge what we have achieved during the day. By the end of the day, we might think that we didn’t really get much done. Remind yourself to look back to see what you set out to do and what you got done. It feels good to be able to see that you got something important done today.

WHY DOES THIS RULE WORK WELL?

The rule of three works well because it is simple and forces us to focus. It is difficult to look at a list of twenty things on a to-do list and decide where to even begin. We all want to feel productive so having a long to-do list can actually encourage us to work on the less important things because they can be quickly checked off. You can end up checking off eight simple things that you got done, but if you didn’t touch one that was really important to you it didn’t really help you out too much.

Picking the three things that are most important to you today, helps you focus on your biggest priorities. If you plan out your timing right, there is a good chance that you can check off all three things on your list for the day. Checking off three really important things, off of a list of three really important things, feels much better than checking off eight things that weren’t that important from a twenty thing to-do list.

OTHER WAYS TO APPLY THE RULE OF THREE

The rule of three is not only for daily planning. It is suggested to write a list of three things you would like to accomplish this week, month, and year. Having these more long-term lists will help you choose what you would like to prioritize today. This can be used for planning your daily work and personal tasks. It can also be used at a higher level for managing many different areas of your life. Some people might want to implement this as a daily practice. For many of us, it’s a great tool to have even if not part of our everyday.

This is a tool you can use for those times when you feel that there is too much to do. We only have a limited amount of time. Some things just have to go whether we like it or not. So, during those times when you are struggling with too many things on your plate, this can be really helpful to get you focused on your biggest priorities.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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