To-Do List Formula: A Stress-Free Guide To Creating To-Do Lists That Work!

by Damon Zahariades

This strategy may be familiar to you. It was popularized by Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.net, although he openly admits it originated elsewhere. MIT is an acronym. It stands for “most important task.” It’s the highest-priority item on your to-do list. It’s the one thing you must complete during the course of a given day. The original strategy called for identifying a single MIT, and focusing on its completion to the exclusion of everything else. Only after completing this item would you turn your attention to other items. The “3-MIT” approach is a common variant. In fact, it’s probably more common than the single-MIT approach because it’s more practical for a greater number of people. As its name implies, you select three high-priority tasks to focus on during your day. Whatever else happens, you must get these three items done. Depending on how much time you need to complete your three MITs, there will be days when you get through your to-do list early. You’ll have plenty of time remaining to work on other to-do tasks. There may also be days during which you have to work late in order to complete your three MITs. As with any task management system, the effectiveness of the “3-MIT” approach is in its execution. The details are left to the user to define.