How to Prioritize Your To-Do List with a Commitment Audit

What do you do when you have more goals, projects, to-dos, and thoughts than you can possibly handle?

The answer is not to stew in anxiety or let ourselves slip into The Procrastination Spiral. Instead, as faithful stewards, we should confront the problem head-on. To that end, I offer the commitment audit as a tool to quickly clarify what needs to be done so you can stop fretting and start doing it.

Click the link below to download the PDF worksheet.

Commitment Audit Worksheet Download

Step 1: Pray for Wisdom

Before you start planning, take a moment to pray.

Our Lord taught His disciples to begin their prayers with “Our Father” because we need to be reminded that through Jesus Christ, we have a father-child relationship with God. He cares for you, even in your to-do list anxiety.

So go to the Father as a child who has gotten in over their head goes to a loving parent. “Dad, I messed up and didn’t know what to do. Can you help me see a way through this?”

Pray for wisdom and cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you. Confess your worry, fear, and exhaustion, and ask Him for grace, mercy, and wisdom to find the way forward.

Then, move forward.

Step 2: List Your Commitments

List all commitments, to-dos, projects, and goals on your mind (if you need more space, use the back of the page or a separate sheet of paper).

Just as when building a puzzle, you need to dump the pieces out onto the table, so when dealing with commitment overwhelm, you must begin by getting it all out of your head. Then, we can decide what to do with each thing.

Step 3: Categorize

Next, go commitment-by-commitment, asking two questions

“Is this important?” (e.g., does it contribute to my long-term goals?).
“Is this urgent?” (does it require immediate attention?).

Copy the number next to each commitment into the corresponding quadrant in the matrix.

Step 4: Delete

For every item that lands in the “Delete” quadrant, cross it off your commitment list.

Trust me, you'll think of it again if it's essential. If you're overwhelmed, then by definition, you have more to do than you can get done. So, be ruthless about cutting your list down.

Step 5: Delegate

For every item in the “Delegate” quadrant, put the name of someone to whom you could hand this commitment in the “Action / Person” column. If you have no one to delegate an item to, leave it for step 7.

Step 6: Delay

Put every item in the “Delay” quadrant on the calendar. Then, cross them off your commitment list.

Your calendar will remind you when you need to think about these again. This step just helps you forget about these important but not urgent items so you can focus on what needs to be done now.

Step 7: Do

Now, you should only be left with the items from the “Do” quadrant and anything you could not delegate from Step 5.

These are your priorities.

Next, write a “next action” for each of these.

Now you have a list of next steps for the vital few items on your list!

Step 8: Thank God & Get Going

Finally, thank the Lord for clarity and wisdom.

Then, start working your way down the list of remaining commitments, contacting anyone you need to delegate a commitment to, or working on the next action you identified for each.