The Rule of Three: How to Stay Productive without feeling Overwhelmed

Keeping a long laundry list of all your tasks can be very daunting. Today I’ll be sharing my experience with the rule of 3 and how it’s helped me maintain productivity in a very simple way.

Hello Lovelies,

As we begin to wrap up the year, it can seem like tasks, goals and deadlines are piling up on us! If you’re anything like me, you have to keep a list of things you HAVE to get done, as not to forget and fall behind on a major task. Sometimes I’d get so overwhelmed looking at a list of the “millions” of things I had to do, that I wound up not doing any of it. Has anyone else experienced this? Or is it just me?

You all know I’m a working mom, and usually my “To-do” list isn’t just my own, it’s my daughter’s too. Anything that needs to be done for either of us, I have to have on lock and make sure it gets done in a timely fashion. For the longest, I found myself getting buried under everything I needed to get done–until I was introduced to the Rule of Three.

The director at my previous company introduced the rule of three to our department after reading Getting Results the Agile Way by J.D. Meiers. The idea behind this principle is maximizing productivity and prioritizing what needs to get done to reach long term goals.

The rule of three is so simple, and applies much less pressure than a typical to do list or goal setting exercise. What you do is simple: write down three outcomes you want for your day, week, month and year. It may seem like a bit of a stretch to start thinking of what you want to come out of a whole year, but what are short term goals and the contents of a vision board but our desired outcomes for the year?

When you lay out your to do list for the day, you should identify the three most important goals for the day and work to get those accomplished first. Think about what will be most crucial for reaching your desired outcome for the day or the week. Focusing on three mini-goals puts you in a better position to get things done and continue on to the next set of goals to help you reach the next milestone.  You should make your goals specific and solution oriented. Giving yourself detailed tasks ensures you’re working toward your desired outcome.

At the end of the day, when you review you to-do list, you’ll see your longer term goals coming into fruition after completing three simple tasks. Even if you don’t complete all three tasks, let’s say you complete two, you’ll still feel a lot more accomplished than you would if you only finished two tasks out of a list of 20. Knowing that you’ve reached two-thirds of your goals for the day leaves you feeling less overwhelmed and diminishes the anxiety of not staying on top of things. Whatever tasks you don’t complete, you can put at the top of the list for the following day. A way to stay on course with your daily tasks is making sure they’re attainable and work with your time frame. You may not be able to launch a brand new, fully functioning website in a day, but you can certainly make that a month-end goal. Everything that goes into reaching that goal can be broken down into daily tasks that are attainable and help you stay on track to meet your goal by the end of the month.

Of course, as time goes on sometimes our goals change. Another great aspect of the rule of three is the fluidity. If something else comes up that’s taking priority over a goal you’ve had preset, you can always course-correct and factor in this new goal. Taking it day by day means you can shift your focus fairly easily if necessary. Chances are, if life throws a monkey wrench in your plans, you’ll be well-equipped to handle it because you’ve fallen into a rhythm and you know how to prioritize everything on your plate. The daily goals may change, but your routine to conquer the tasks at hand stay the same. 

I hope you all find the rule of three as helpful as I have. Comment down below if you currently use the rule of three or any other productivity method that works for you!

Until next time,