I was chatting with a buddy of mine recently, and we got to chatting about our Todo lists. I’m a massive believer in Todo lists. Specifically, digital lists, as (in my humble opinion) digital lists can be manipulated in various ways. While you can make hard copy lists very detailed, it makes it harder to weed through them as everything is in one place. I used to be hilariously disorganized, thinking that I could run my life on a series of notes in a book and the occasional post-it put up somewhere around my apartment. Suffice it to say; I had missed bills, late projects, and forgotten dates all the time. It was awful. What’s hilarious about this is that I used not to like to-do lists, as they made me panic at how long they would get.
1) Making it short and doable – I hear from people who don’t like using to-do lists that they don’t like using them because the thought of a long list is terrifying. I absolutely understand. When I started making to-do lists, I would start with a pad of paper and start writing down the stuff that I had to get done. Once I would get to page 4 of tasks, I would look back and think that there would be no way to get all of it done. I discovered when using digital lists that I can manipulate them so that no matter how much stuff is on my full to-do lists, the part that I check is only what I need to do today. There are a variety of different programs out there that will help you sort out your to-do list, and they all work well; it’s just a matter of one that works for you.
2) Dates make everything easier – One of the ways that I make my to-do lists shorter is by assigning a date to every task. I will think of things that I need to do throughout the day, and sometimes I don’t have time for a task on a specific day. Adding a date to it means that the task (whatever it happens to be) will show up on my daily to-do list eventually. I sleep well knowing whatever it is I need to take care of today, tomorrow, and the next day is all on my list somewhere. I only have to worry about getting done whatever is on my list for that particular day. Similarly, if something isn’t on my list, I don’t have to worry about it as it will eventually appear on my daily list.
3) Metadata, if possible – We all have deeply complex lives and many facets that go along with them. I have been able to add metadata to my list for the various tasks that I have on my list. Adding the Metadata achieves two things for me; firstly, I can look at my extensive list and sort it so I can only see the specific big tasks that I want to get done. As an example, if I have any tasks on my to-do list related to this blog, I will add “Writing” metadata to the task. If it has something to do with my family, I will put “Personal” Metadata. The second thing that Metadata does for me is that it makes it so that when I’m looking at my daily lists, I know what kind of day I’m going to have. Some days I have a lot of “health” things that I need to do on a specific day, or I may have a big “Finance” day if I have to pay all my bills. Adding the Metadata allows me to sort my life.
4) Do not use multiple places – As a reformed disorganized person, I know that the one thing that kept me from doing things was knowing what the hell I needed to get done. Partially this was because (at the time) I had it in my head that every big task required a different list (which does make sense), and each of those lists needed its own notebooks (which now make no sense at all). If you’re starting with a Digital list, for the love of all that’s holy, DO NOT keep lists in different places. It’s hard enough to keep hard copy lists together, properly organized, and make sure they flow, but multiple digital lists across different apps or platforms can be WORSE. It makes more sense to keep all of your tasks in one spot. I want to make a distinction here. I have used apps before like Wunderlist (Now Microsoft ToDo), which allows multiple different lists. Having different lists is perfectly acceptable; it’s crucially important to ensure that they all flow through into one spot. If you have a to-do list app like Todoist or Microsoft Todo, you can have multiple lists and have them all flow into one, which will only give you today’s tasks from each list.
5) Brain dump to get started – If you’re getting started with a to-do list, you’re likely to have a lot of stuff on your mind. That’s cool. There’s nothing wrong with that. I would advise taking some time and going into your to-do list app and just typing in everything you can possibly imagine that you need to get done. Daily tasks, weekly tasks, monthly tasks, whatever you want. For the moment, it doesn’t matter about what needs to be done first or what tasks go with what. The only thing you need to worry about is getting everything down on “Paper,” as it were. Once everything is down, then you can start categorizing and dating everything. When you get enough tasks in one list, you will see the different things almost naturally come together to form groupings. These can be the categories. You can start assigning it to those groupings if you’re using Metadata. If you’re using a Todo list app, you can start making multiple lists that will flow through into the main list. Once you start seeing the order you want to get things done in; you can add dates and then start cracking on your goals.
I love me a good to-do list. Having them has absolutely made my life far more efficient than it was before. It’s put me on track for a lot of my goals. While I’ve still had some times when I don’t get to all the things that I need to do on a given day, I still feel good about what I can do. Also, it makes sure that even if I don’t get to something throughout the day, that task, that Idea, that quick thing I needed to do, isn’t lost forever. I can always readjust the time something needs to be completed. I also practice once a week, going through my to-do list to see what I didn’t get to last week, setting up things that I need to get done in the upcoming week, and or adjusting things that can be pushed off for a week. Having this ability make it so that you can organize your life digitally.
What do you do for a to-do list?
Let me know in the comments section below. If you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) or Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.
Your grandpa would be proud!