Have you ever collected all the little scraps of paper and random notebooks you’ve scribbled your to-do lists on and combined them into one giant list? Well, Bethany did and she end up with 165 items on her to-do list! What?! Yes, you heard that right, 165 items.
Where do you even start with a 165 things on your to-do list? Whether you have a long, overwhelming to-do list or a small list you can’t seem to get through, we are sharing 5 steps to get your to-do list organized so you can begin taking action on your to-dos!
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What started as a To-do list check in morphed into a whole episode about to-do lists! We have talked about to-do lists in the past, on Ep 7 Making a Better To-Do List and Ep 14 Taking Action: The To-Do List, but it was obviously time to revisit them.
So as we were talking, we came up with 5 steps you can take to organizing your to-do list.
Step 1 Divide into categories
We choose 4 different categories to sort the to-do list into:
- Projects
- Errands
- Calls
- Computer work
You can choose whatever categories make sense for you but the categories help you batch tasks together and they also help you see which items need to be broken down into small concrete action steps.
Step 2 Add Items to your Calendar
Any to-dos that are pending or are time dependent schedule them straight into calendar. Many times items that can’t even be acted on yet are cluttering up your to-do list.
Step 3 Delete tasks
Delete any tasks that are outdated or not that important anymore or as in Bethany’s case, tasks that you don’t remember what they are for!
Another way to delete to-do is to delegate or postpone. If you need help, ask for it. And if you can postpone a task, add it to your projects list or someday maybe list. Our favorite book on the topic is David Allen’s Getting Things Done, where he goes into detail of a someday maybe to-do list.
Step 4 Assign time limits
You might be tempted to skip this step but give it a try because it can make such a difference! When looking at your to-do list decide how much time is needed to complete the task. Be realistic.
As you are assigning time limits, you might find multiple steps of a project or realize that you can check something off your list in 5 minutes. You could also find that a task really needs devoted, uninterrupted block of time that needs to be scheduled on your calendar or you will never get it done.
Looking at a long to-do list can be overwhelming but when you add in time limits or even time estimations, you can begin to see how to carve out time to get everything done.
Step 5 Decide your priorities
What are the top 3-5 things you want to do this week? Or what is the most important thing to get done today.
Deciding ahead of time what you priorities are, allows you to focus on actually getting things done instead of going back over your to-do list again and again without making any headway.
If you need help with this, check out the Eisenhower Matrix that we have referred to in Ep 49 Questioning Our Productivity, with a visual from James Clear.
Focus on that important but not urgent square when deciding on your priorities.
Now It’s YOUR TURN!
Choose 3 (or more!) things to re-examine on your to-do list. Can you delete it entirely or put it on hold for a while?
What’s your strategy for keeping track of your to-do list? How do you keep your to-do list organized?
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This is the show/podcast I’ve needed for a long time – Organizing My To Do List
Best tip was putting the project note post it on the day of the calendar
You two are great together
Thank you Mary for listening along and we are so glad it was helpful!
Hi!
I finally got to listen to this episode and I love it! I always appreciate a GTD refresher. 🙂
If either of you are interested in an “app for that” I can highly recommend even the free version of Nirvana. It’s really easy to create a to-do with a tag (e.g. errand or computer) and the length of time it will take to accomplish. There’sa section to track projects, the ability to “star” items you want to focus on, and an area for Someday/Maybe items.
If you REALLY love apps and have Apple devices, there’s OmniFocus. It costs money but it has a ton of bells and whistles you can enable, like sending you a notification when you are physically close to an area you’ve identified as part of a to-do (e.g. “Oh hey, the post office is right over there—didn’t you say you need stamps?”). I loved it, but it was a bit much for me, so I stuck with Nirvana.
Anyway, just thought I’d toss in my experience with GTD apps in case either of you or your followers were interested.
Have a great day, and thank you for a wonderful, down-to-earth podcast that doesn’t talk down to its listeners or try to sell us anything. <3