During my weekly one-on-one call with staff the other day, they told me how they currently views their tasks not as “To-do lists” but instead calls them “Next action steps”. A lightbulb hit when they mentioned that during our call. I think it’s important for all of us to have this perspective.

A to-do list sounds daunting, mundane, and worst of all ENDLESS….after all, you have personal and professional to-do lists every day every week every month, it’s  exhausting just thinking about that list. But with a “next action step”, it actually helps you stay FOCUSED on what the “NEXT” immediate thing you need to do to accomplish the task, project, or goal.

Internally we use the word “action items” during meetings and I’m changing that immediately starting next week to “Next Action Steps”. Action items is really just a fancy word for “to do list after meetings”.

Next Action Steps gets you to think about what is the one action (out of ALL the actions I can do) that could inch me forward towards the results I am seeking?

To me, this is super powerful because I am often crushed by the plethora of projects, campaigns, and to-dos and on my worst days they paralyze me meaning I know I need to do something but I am stuck doing nothing because I am looking at “action items” aka to-do lists and not “the next action step” which actually can help me get un-stuck in my own head.

In a way, I see this as a game. In every game you ever play, there are levels you have to breakthrough in order to go to the next level; you can’t skip a step and expect to level up, it doesn’t work that way in games and it sure as hell doesn’t work like that in LIFE (personal and professional).

So the next time you are crushed by the mountain of “to-do lists” or “action items” ask yourself “What is my next action step?” and then go after it with no fear! Crush the next step and continue to the next level, make your to-do lists fun by creating a game out of it.