Yesterday I wrote about how I use my customizable planner to have everything in one place. I mentioned that I put my To-D0 List in the Daily Pages of the planner. Today I want to go into a little more detail about my To-Do List.
I admit, I suffer from Write-It-Down-Just-So-You-Can-Cross-It-Off-Your-List-itis. Can anyone relate? It gives me a sense of accomplishment, like I’m actually being productive 😉 I usually have 2 or 3 To-Do lists going on at one time:
- A “Brain Dump” list, where I write down everything I have to do as I think of it. But having this massive, unorganized list can be overwhelming and paralyzing because you don’t know where to start.
- A Weekly List. I scan my Brain Dump List and pick out the most important tasks I want to accomplish by the end of the week. This (much) shorter list often goes on a sticky note so I can easily move it from one day to the next without having to re-write everything. These Lined Super Sticky Notes from Amazon are great, but a regular sticky note works if you have a short list:
- 3 Most Important Things Daily List. This is hard, especially for geeky over-achievers like myself. But I ask, “If I ONLY do 3 things today, what should they be?” If it helps, you can have one task each for personal, work, and household. I write these 3 things in the Daily Pages
of my planner. Once I finish those three tasks, I look at my sticky note and determine what I’ll tackle next.
Using the 3 Most Important Things List really keeps me from being overwhelmed, and helps simplify my life. The key to this method is to make sure you get those 3 things done! Treat them like an appointment with yourself and keep your commitment. (By the way, a side benefit to keeping your commitments to yourself is improved self-esteem. But that’s another story for another post.)
Another effective way to prioritize a To-Do List is to use the ABC method, where A is the most important and/or urgent, and just work your way through all the As, then Bs, then Cs. I prefer my method because it’s less visually cluttered.
How do you tame your To-Do List? Do you get overwhelmed, or do you have a way to simplify it? Leave a comment and let me know!
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