THE DAILY TO-DO LIST

WHY DO WE NEED TO MANAGE OUR TO DO LIST?

Most of us have so many things on our to-do list that it seems almost impossible to ever accomplish these things! We create a to-do list to keep ourselves organized.  They help us not forget things that we need to do. To-do lists are supposed to help you relieve stress because once something is on your list, you no longer have to worry about it. Despite the benefits of having a to-do list, they often can end up causing us stress. Our to-do list often grows by more items each day than we are able to check off. It can leave us feeling like we will never get caught up with all we have to do. Looking at a long list of “to-dos” can sometimes cause us to get less done because we tend to procrastinate when our list of things to get done seems overwhelming.

So, today I wanted to share some tips that might help you in managing your to-do list, so it serves the purpose that you created it for.

HAVE ONE MASTER LIST WHERE YOU PUT EVERYTHING

If you can have one central location, either paper or digital, where you can write everything down you will not be worried that you are forgetting to check somewhere. Sometimes you might not be in a place where you can access your master to-do list, say if it’s paper and you are out shopping. In that case, set yourself a reminder to add it to the list when you get home.

I often stop right in the middle of shopping and make a reminder on my phone to tell me to put something on my list. If I don’t make a reminder right then, I will forget what it was, and then have this nagging feeling that there is something I need to do but have no idea now what it was. So, having one place to put everything can help with that. You can then review your master list to decide what you will work on each day.

CREATE A LIST JUST FOR TODAY

By creating a list of things that you want to get done today you can create something that is actually doable. I doubt if there will ever be a day where we will check off everything on our master to-do list.  And it is not reasonable to think that you ever would. When you pick a few things from your master to-do list and make a separate list just for today you have something that you can actually accomplish.

While you are focusing on your tasks for the day, you will not have to look at your master list.  Looking at your master list while you are trying to get things accomplished can be distracting.  It’s just a constant reminder of all the other things that need to be done too. A list just for today can usually be completely or mostly checked off, which can give you a feeling of accomplishment. If you check 3 things off a list of 3 things for today, you will feel great.  If you check 3 things off of a list of 20 things on your master list, you likely won’t have that same feeling.

CONSIDER WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY

When you create your daily to-do list, make sure to think about what else you have going on that day. It’s important to look at your schedule and block out the times you will not be available to work on things. This will help you create a realistic to-do list with a reasonable amount of items that you can probably complete. Some days there is just no time for a to-do list. I think recognizing those days, frees us from feeling like we should be getting something done.

I had some days like this where I was driving both of my daughters to work at the boardwalk during the summer.  They were both on different schedules working for 2 different employers.  There were days where I would make four 40 minute round trips to pick up and drop off. Needless to say, I wasn’t getting much done those days. By recognizing that there was little I would be able to do on those days, took away the stress of feeling like I needed to be doing something else.

PRIORITIZE YOU LIST

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Steven Covey method of prioritizing tasks within 4 quadrants. The 4 quadrants are:

• Urgent and important – those need to get done first. The goal is to try to avoid things getting into this category. This might be something like getting a gift for a party this is tomorrow afternoon.
• Urgent and not important -this might be something like checking and responding to email. In our minds, we might think it’s urgent and needs to be taken care of right away. But, often these things can wait so that we can focus on what is more important.
• Not urgent and important – this is where you would ideally like to always be working. This might be getting a gift for the party that is being held next weekend. It’s important, but not urgent because you did not wait until the day before to take care of it!
• Not urgent and not important – these are things that you can do when you have time. This might be something like watching a movie you have been wanting to see. I’m not saying that might not be something that can fall into another category.  Maybe you just need a day to rest, so you might decide that watching that movie is urgent and important

It’s up to you to decide how to categorize your priorities.

MAKE A NEW DAILY LIST FOR EACH DAY

Don’t keep your to do list from yesterday and add more things to it today.  You will then just begin to accumulate a long list again. You want a nice clean list to be able to look at today. This helps you see just those things that you want to do today. If you didn’t finish something today, put it on your list for the next day if it’s still a priority. The idea is that you want to start fresh each day with a to-do list that was thought through based on what you actually could get done today.

DON’T JUST PICK EASY STUFF

Unless you have a really busy day ahead of you where you will not be able to focus on anything of significance, you want to make sure you pick at least one item to put on your daily list that is of higher importance. It can be easy to pick the easy things from your master list to put on your list for today. But, those easier items often are those that are not a very high priority. By putting those things on your list, you will likely get them all checked off.  However, you probably won’t feel as great as if you picked something that was more important.

TRY TO GET SOME FUN THINGS IN ALONG WITH YOUR OTHER TASKS

I always find that some of the best days are the ones where I get some important things accomplished, but also have done some things that are just for fun. Sometimes we often feel really overloaded with things to do. But, we can usually find at least 10-15 minutes during the day to take a break and do something we enjoy!

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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