One of the challenges of confining your tasks for the day to a single side of a 3 x 5” card is the limit of 9 items. While usually the top items will require significant time and effort, there may be small tasks that are important to get done—and done today—but that won’t take a lot of time. So it’s feasible to get 3 or more of those small tasks done, but still have enough time to fill up the card with other (also) important tasks.
Another challenge tends to be when you have big, dense, cognitively demanding tasks filling up your card. It can be daunting to put in an hour or more of work, and only be able to cross of one item (or just half an item) off your card.
This is where bundling can help.
If you have a few tasks that you really need to get done soon, and your card is filling up with more demanding tasks—pick 3 or so small tasks and bundle them in one line. Then you can take a short break from the big, involved tasks on your card and get some points for knocking out those smaller tasks.
You get 2 benefits from this. First, you get the small tasks done more quickly without having to sacrifice space on your card for other items that deserve more points. Second—and perhaps more importantly—you set yourself up to keep up your momentum by allowing for some quick, easy, and less demanding points to be earned during a day of otherwise demanding tasks.
Mix things up on your card. Know how demanding some tasks can be, and allow yourself to get some points for taking a break from that demanding work—and get other things done that might not be hard, but will pull at you if you keep putting them off.
