Double up your to-do list

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Over on Change Bit By Bit, Tana Pesso talks about the over-worked stress so many people that gets in the way of either productivity or enjoying life, or both.

She suggests beginning your day with a realistic to-do list and (here's the kicker) actually sticking with it.

That got me thinking about my own experience with to-do lists. On the one hand, they're an invaluable tool to help me keep moving forward and making things happen. On the other hand, the items on my to-do lists have this tendency to breed like bunnies.

I keep my daily to-do list up on a whiteboard. Every once in a while the list gets so out of control I end up just taking an eraser to the whole thing, on the theory that if it's really important, it will find it's way back to a new list. Probably not the best approach, but it seems to work for me. ;-)

I like Tana's focus on sticking with a realistic, doable to-do list each day. Ticking off the items on your list until every last thing is done feels good. It feels like you're in control of your journey, rather than chasing after a runaway train.

Of course, just because you're committing to a realistic to-do list doesn't mean that more to-do's won't pop up as the day progresses. Rather than adding them to today's to-do list, how about taking a dual list approach? A to-do-today list and a to-do-eventually list.

Each morning your could look at your to-do-eventually list and say, "OK, what here do I want to do today?" (And remember - keep it realistic!)

If something new pops up that you absolutely have to take care of today, think of your to-do-today list as a glass full to the rim with water. You can pour more in, but some of the existing contents is going to spill out. When you add more to your to-do-today list, follow it with the question, "Now what do I reassign to the to-do-eventually list."

In the end, it's about making sure that your to-do lists serve you well, rather than letting them control your life.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Comments

[Joy]

Managing the lists sounds a bit tedious (and another thing TO DO!) as well as training your brain to forget - because it's written down.

Have you taken a look at Simpleology? A lot of people are getting some great results from it.
www.simpleology.com

[Tim]

Last summer, in the midst of unemployment, I spent good money on a Franklin Covey planner. A few weeks before that I had attended a free time management seminar which was pretty incredible. I have done a lot better planning and setting goals and to-do list, though I am no David Allen. If I hadn't attended the seminar, I might not have learned about the power of getting things out of your mind and onto paper.

[Curt Rosengren]

Joy, thanks for the tip. My one thought on that would be that different things work for different people, depending on how they're wired. For some managing the lists might feel a bit tedious. For others it might be precisely what they need.

Tim, I'm a huge fan of getting one's thoughts out of one's head. It's amazing what a difference it can make when we can see it in front of us, rather than trying to grab at it as it whirls around inside.

[Alex Fayle]

Coming up with a Top Five or a Top Three for the day works well, as does following the maxim of "if it takes less than a minute, do it."

How many of those things on our to do lists appear because we don't continually do the little things as the arise. Coming into the house, where does your stuff go? Likely on the kitchen island, meaning at the end of the week you'll have a huge pile that then goes on the to do list.

Whereas if you put stuff away as you come in, the tidying task never appears on the list.