How to Boost Your Productivity with a Top-5 List

Fewer priorities mean clearer focus, less overwhelm, and a calmer, more purposeful day. By highlighting your most important 20% (your Top 5), you can cut through mental clutter, move forward with intention, and make progress on the tasks that create the biggest impact for you each day.

One of the first posts I published back in 2010 was about my Top 5 Lists.

In the years since, I have gotten so many emails, comments, and questions about how exactly I use my Top-5 List to boost productivity throughout the day.

Here are the answers to those questions…

What is a Top-5 List?

A Top-5 List is simply the most important tasks/to-dos that absolutely must be accomplished in a given period of time (I make mine every day, but it could be weekly or project-based).

A few examples from my own life: 

1. prep and make dinner for that night
2. attend a meeting or be available for a phone conversation at a specific time
3. wash a load of whites because we are all out of kitchen towels
4. buy more milk and eggs
5. finish painting the trim because carpet is arriving the next day

Is a Top 5 List separate from a regular to-do list?

That’s up to you.

For me, things get too confusing if I make a bunch of little lists — so I put everything on one list and often highlight or star my “Top 5” for the day.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a daily chore, a weekly to-do that I’m planning to tackle that day, a meeting, errands I need to run, a phone call to make, emails to send, work-related, personal, family, etc., they are all on one list!

But feel free to play around with the idea and do what feels best for you.

Where should I make my Top-5 List?

I’m a pen and paper gal, so I always write mine out (writing helps me remember too).

However, you can make it digitally on your phone or in a productivity App. You could also put your Top 5 on a wall calendar or on a sticky note on your fridge.

There is no “one right way ” to do this!

How will a Top-5 List help me?

I’m the type of person who would rather complete 15 small non-priority projects versus 3 larger, more time-consuming projects that MUST be finished before I go to bed that night.

So for me, a Top-5 List helps me to see exactly what important tasks I must do each day, and then mentally create time in my schedule to finish those tasks (a.k.a. it helps reduce my procrastination!)

Also, since I make my daily to-do list before I go to bed, I have a bit of time to think through the important things I need to do the following day. This way, I can get right to work when I wake up — again, reducing the natural human tendency for procrastination.

Do I have to stick to 5 things?

No. The number 5 is just a guideline — a helpful way of making sure our to-do lists are not overloaded.

The point is to differentiate between everything you want to do in a day and the few things that absolutely MUST happen for you to stay on top of things without falling too far behind. It should feel doable but not extremely stressful to accomplish your Top-5 (or however many items you put on your list).

If we only put 1 important item on our list each day, we won’t ever accomplish much. On the other hand, if we’re consistently putting 15-20 important items on our “Top-5 List”, we’ll probably end up discouraged by our lack of productivity and feel very scattered.

By sticking to roughly 5 super important tasks each day, it’s easier to hone in and focus on those tasks without feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen in 24 hours.

When do you tackle your Top 5?

Since I always make my to-do list before going to bed, I know what my most important tasks are before I wake up in the morning. This makes it very easy to jump out of bed and get started on something important and productive.

However, I honestly don’t always do my Top-5 items right away because they often aren’t “urgent” – just “important”… if that makes sense!

I can plan my day around these Top-5 tasks, and if they require lots of focused time, I plan them for early in the morning or later at night (when the kids are sleeping). Then I’ll work on less focused, but equally important, work throughout the day (laundry, dishes, meal planning, running errands). 

RELATED READING: Don’t Let the Urgent Get In The Way of the Important

Can you add or remove items from your Top-5 List?

Yes!

Sick children, unexpected technology issues, or canceled plans all force me to rearrange my schedule and adjust my daily to-dos. 

Of course, this doesn’t happen every day, but when it does, it’s perfectly OK to adjust your expectations accordingly. 

Remember, your to-do list should be a tool that works FOR YOU… not the other way around!

What if you don’t finish a Top-5 Task?

In the case that you don’t accomplish your most important tasks for the day, you have 3 options…

1. Wake up early to do it first thing the next morning.
2. Hire/ask someone else to do it for you.
3. Ask yourself if the to-do was really that important to you… if not, drop the task for now.

So often, I’ve found that if I continually push a task off until “later,” it’s not as important or essential as I once thought it was. When one of my Top-5 Tasks is left undone at the end of the day, it’s usually because I know, deep down, that it’s just not a priority for me. If it were, I would have made the time to do it.

Have you ever made a Top-5 List?

If not, I hope this post inspires and encourages you to give it a try.

It takes just a few minutes to make, yet it has the potential to save countless hours of stress and frustration as you go through your days and weeks more focused on the things that matter most to you.

Are you a Top-5 List maker? How has it helped you?