But wait, why would I do a task audit?

You’ve finished another week, and you’re looking at your to-do list with resentment.

You felt like you did SO much. Your week was filled to the brim with activity. Buuut you still you haven’t made the progress you thought you’d make. You haven’t made a dent in that big project that you were going to finally get started on. You didn’t get around to exercising (again). You were going going going… and for what?

Enter: The Task Audit.

What do I need?

💫 Somewhere to write down your tasks (think: Notion, excel, a notebook). Please don’t overthink this. Go with your gut.

How do I do a task audit?

☁️ Step 1: Create a loose list of everything that you intend to get done during the next week.
☁️ Step 2: As your week plays out, write down everything you do: From the 20-minute scroll on socials to the 90-minute deep work sesh.
☁️ Step 3: At the end of each day, evaluate your tasks. Measure: alignment, enjoyment, ease, value, and impact (more on how to do that below).
☁️ Step 4: At the end of each day (or week, up to you), reflect on improvements you could make. Ask yourself: Would it make more sense to delete, delegate, automate or optimise any of the tasks?

☁️ Step 1: The Loose List

To start your task audit, create a loose list of everything that you intend to get done during the next week.

Why? Because one of the things that you’re measuring is alignment. Are the tasks that you’re actually doing aligned with what you SAY you want to do? If not, you need to be aware of that.

Your loose list doesn’t need to be fancy. Just jot down a realistic bullet point list of the top priorities that you want to tackle in the week ahead.

My weekly to-do list is usually a list of projects that I want to tackle for the week. It looks like this:

☁️ Step 2: Write down what you do

When you’re doing a task audit, you want to write down what you do as you’re about to do it.

Writing down what you do as you’re about to do it has a huge added benefit: it will make you INTENSELY mindful of your daily decisions.

Whenever you feel the urge to check Instagram mid-tidy, you’ll be forced to write it down.

When you want to look at Facebook marketplace mid-email, you’ll be forced to make that choice consciously.

Writing things down makes you mindful (I know, such a boring word, feel free to replace it with: conscious, aware or even deliberate).

☁️ Step 3: Evaluate your tasks

Here’s what you wanna measure:

Alignment (1 - 10):

Measure: alignment, enjoyment, ease, value, and impact (more on how to do that below).