You may have heard that you can accomplish more by doing less. The idea is that when you have fewer things to do, you have more time and energy to do those things and do them well.

Many productivity systems suggest using “WIP Limits” to structure your work, WIP standing for “Work in Progress”. By limiting yourself to fewer (but more important) tasks, you can be more effective than having a dozen lesser tasks on your list that you may or may not get done.

I usually schedule 2 or 3 “most important tasks” for the day. If I get those done, it’s a good day, even if I do little else.

WIP limits are an example of “constraints,” limits to the amount of work you commit to. They acknowledge that we only have so many slots to fill each day and we should fill them with activities that deliver the most value.

One way to implement constraints is by the way you use your task app.

The task management app Todoist allows you to have up to 300 projects in their paid version. A project could be a case or client, an “area of focus” (e.g., work, family, finances, etc.), a time frame (e.g., this week, next week, this month, next month, future) or something else.

You might have 300 clients in your system, each one a project, but you can’t expect to focus if they are all “active” at the same time. You’ll find it easier to focus if you limit yourself to perhaps 5 or 10 active projects.

If you have trouble limiting yourself, you might choose an app that doesn’t allow so many projects or areas, or, in the case of Todoist, downgrade to the free version, which only allows 5 active projects.

Having only 5 slots to fill forces you to choose those slots wisely. It forces you to figure out what’s most important to you, so you can focus on it.

How many active projects, areas of responsibility, clients, or cases do you currently have in your task management system? What might happen if you reduce that number? And what might happen if you schedule fewer tasks each day to do your work?

Over the next few days, consider these questions and how WIP limits and other constraints might help you to focus and be more effective.

I’m trying out a new task manager. It’s not that I’m looking to replace the app I currently use, it’s that trying out a new app makes it easier and more fun to do a “task reset,” something I do periodically but especially at the beginning of a new year.

Basically, that means I’m cleaning house.

I’m purging old tasks and projects I realize I’m not going to do, organizing the ones I still want to do, and moving my most important tasks and projects front and center.

No matter how effective our systems are, they tend to slow down after we’ve used them for awhile, often to the point of overwhelming us. When you feel like you don’t want to look at your lists anymore, it’s probably time to do a reset.

Moving things to a new app makes that easier because it forces you to go through everything one by one, and consider its importance. A new app helps that process because it is unfamiliar. You have to slow down as you figure out how to use it, what you want to add or keep, and where to put it.

When you’re done, you should have a smaller number of important projects to focus on and fewer things to distract you.

But you don’t need a new app to do this. You can do a task reset in the app you currently use.

First, move all your tasks and projects and routines from their current place of “residence” in the app into a temporary home, a new project labeled “reset” for example, leaving the rest of the app empty.

Then, go through everything you just moved, item by item, and move them back to either their original home (project, area, file, folder, etc.), or a new one.

Make each task, project, or goal earn a place in your new setup.

New year. New you. New setup.

No doubt you’ve head the expression, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person”.

Why would you give it to a busy person? They have no time.

Maybe you’ve heard another version, “If you want something done, give it to a lazy person.”

Why give it to a lazy person? They’re… lazy!

But both versions make perfect sense.

Busy people and lazy people seem to be at the opposite ends of the productivity spectrum, but they’re actually on the same page.

Both want to get things done quickly and efficiently, with as little time and effort as possible. Busy people don’t have time to waste. Lazy people have time but don’t want to waste it.

Being busy (or lazy) forces you to be (a) more selective about what you do, and (b) more creative about how you do it.

Both lazy people and busy people avoid taking on projects that aren’t the “highest and best” use of their time.

They’re both good at delegating.

Both use shortcuts, templates, forms, and checklists.

Both look for ways to leverage their efforts, such as re-purposing content and (in the case of professionals) prioritizing repeat business and referrals over marketing to the cold market.

And both say no to good ideas to make room for great ones.

In short, both are effective and productive, because they’ve figured out how to make the most of what they have.

If you want to be more productive, be lazy. Or busy if you like that better. Either way, you’ll get more done.

Some days, you open your task app, look at your today list, and think “I’ve got this.”

Your list looks do-able. It feels about right—not too long, not too difficult. It calls to you and says, “Let’s get this done!”

Other days, you open your list and think, “Crap!” There’s too much to do, everything looks important and difficult, and you realize you’ll never get it all done today.

Your list is overwhelming. You don’t even want to look it let alone get to work.

We do our best to avoid loading up our lists with too many tasks. But we’re human and often bite off more than we can chew.

Our weekly review helps. But over time, we tend to add new tasks faster than we finish old ones, so our lists are perpetually growing.

Which means, despite our best efforts, sometimes our lists get out of control.

When that happens, it’s time to do some maintenance and repairs.

Which is what I did this past weekend.

I knew it was time because I found myself deferring more tasks each day than I was actually doing.

That’s called a clue.

The first thing I did was go through my lists, cut out tasks I knew I wasn’t going to do, and consolidate duplicates. That probably reduced the total by 15% or 20%. Not a bad start.

I usually keep 4 primary lists: Today, Next (this week), Later, and Someday/Maybe. The next thing I did was go through my lists again and “downgrade” tasks.

I moved some Today tasks to Next, Next tasks to Later, and Later tasks to Someday. Doing that means I won’t have to look at as many tasks each day and each week.

And that makes a huge difference.

When “Today” has no more than 10 tasks on it, I know I can get that done. More than that and I feel resistance.

It wasn’t a complete task reset. More like grooming my lists and making them more presentable. A long overdue shave and a haircut.

Moving forward, there are two things left to do.

First, I still need to go through my Someday/Maybe list and give that a trim. That’s scheduled for the end of this month.

The other thing I need to do to keep my lists manageable is schedule a new recurring task, to do what I did this weekend every 60 days.

Coincidentally, we had the trees in our front yard trimmed this weekend. We’ll have to do that again next year.

Because growth happens.

I don’t know if David Allen originated the idea of ubiquitous capture, or merely popularized it (and I’m too lazy to look it up), but it’s something I do and recommend.

In a nutshell, it means being able to capture ideas and thoughts and things to do, wherever we are and whatever else we might be doing—so we don’t forget them.

Because we will forget them if we don’t.

I know, some say that if it’s a good idea, we’ll think of it again. They also say most of our fleeting thoughts aren’t worth spit, so don’t worry about capturing everything. But I’m not so sure.

Besides, the more we practice the art of capturing ideas, the more ideas our brain will produce, so even if most of our ideas aren’t useful, we’ll get more that are.

I don’t know if there’s a scientific basis for this, but it sounds good to me, so that’s what I’m going with.

So, I have apps on my phone and computer which allow me to jot down or dictate the idea and save it to my notes program or task program, for later processing and action. I’m sure you do, too.

I also keep a pad of paper and pen nearby my desk and side chair, because it’s often quicker to capture an idea the old-fashioned way.

But here’s the thing. The ideas I capture with a pen often feel different from the ones I capture digitally.

I can’t explain it. There’s something about how it feels to scratch words on paper and the movement of my hand across the page that feels more organic. It’s as though I’m more closely connected to those thoughts; they are the product of a deeper part of my brain.

And no, writing with a stylus on glass isn’t the same. At least for me.

Studies tell us that taking notes on paper fosters better understanding, and those notes are remembered longer, too. So there must be something to it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my apps. I love dictation. I’m a digital guy most of the time. But when I want to get something down quickly, and especially when I don’t quite know what I think or what I want to say, I often reach for a pen to figure that out.

So, boys and girls, don’t throw out your legal pads just yet. But okay, you can get them in other colors.