Boost your productivity with an effective to-do list. We have 4 simple tips to help you prioritize tasks and get things done.
To-do lists are an elegantly simple way to reduce stress and increase productivity. However, more to-dos and to-do lists can be counterproductive.
In this post, we have 4 simple tips for creating an effective to-do list, including how to capture, prioritize and create an action plan so you accomplish everything you need to get done.
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How Do You Organize An Overwhelming To Do List?
You know the feeling when the weekend rolls around, and you have a stretch of free time ahead of you, and there are a million things you want to accomplish? You’re trying to keep track as thought after thought of what needs to get done pops into your head.
Then have you noticed that when you take a moment to write everything down, you immediately feel better, and the stress dissipates?
Trying to organize every single thought mentally is stressful and overwhelming due to what is known as cognitive overload theory. Writing down your thoughts on paper brings them into the physical realm, which allows your brain to cognitively offload.
Your brain no longer has to try to herd every thought while simultaneously trying to determine how and what to do with each idea.
Once all of your thoughts are down on paper, your brain no longer needs to be the workhorse and can become the orchestra conductor prioritizing how what, and when things need to get done.
This is why the simple to-do list is such a powerful stress reliever, productivity hack, and brain hack!
Reduce Cognitive Overload By Creating An Effective To-Do List
Often we overcomplicate our scheduling and organizational systems to the point where they could be more productive. Unfortunately, once your systems become too complicated, you’re right back where you started: overwhelmed and contributing to your cognitive overload.
Try to keep things as simple as possible. Think about the best medium for you- pen and paper, your notes app on your phone, an online calendar system, or even a platform like Notion or OneNote. Each has its pros and cons. Try out different options but stick with the one that requires the least time investment and ultimately helps you to be your most productive self
The Four Components Of An Effective To-Do List
1) Streamline Your List
- Don’t include tasks that don’t require a written reminder- brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, rinsing the dishes, etc.
- Keep your to-do list just to the critical things that need to get done that you wouldn’t otherwise remember
- If you feel compelled to allocate time for these types of routine tasks, use an hourly planner and mark off blocks of time to accomplish these daily tasks
- Keep words to a minimum- verbs first, details later so your list is easy to read. For instance, reword “Shelly wants to meet next week, call her to confirm what time” to “Call Shelly, and confirm meeting time for next week.”
- If you find you have a lot of great ideas or thoughts on things you’d like to do in the future that don’t belong on your to-do list, keep a separate journal just for brainstorming. Keeping a separate journal will help to make sure you are keeping track of these thoughts, even if they aren’t urgent, without distracting from essential items on your to-do list
Daily Goal Setter- Hourly Planner
This planner is designed to help you block off time for daily tasks and is a good compliment for identifying avaiaible time in your day that is available for accomplishing items on your to-do list.
2) Establish Priorities
- Whether you’re creating a to-do list for the day, weekend, week, or month ahead, there will be items that “must get done” and items that are “nice to get done.”
- It might go without saying, but write a list of the “must get done” items at the top and prioritize tasks that will contribute to completing those mandatory items.
- While it can feel good to accomplish little things just to cross items off your list, you may ultimately cause more stress by spending time on inconsequential tasks that could have gone to necessary actions to complete your mandatory goals.
- Also, highlight things with a time-sensitive deadline- i.e., paying your car registration, sending an important document, or canceling a subscription before the free trial runs ours.
3) Create An Action Plan
- Take a comprehensive look at everything that needs to get done.
- Do some tasks need to be completed so that you can accomplish others? For instance, buy laundry detergent so you can wash your clothes.
- Do you need to run out to several different stores to get the supplies you need? Or could you go to one store and pick up most items on your list? If you do need to go to several different stores, think about the most efficient loop so you aren’t driving in three different directions.
- Have a significant other, kids, or a roommate who can help? Identify how you can divide and conquer to get things done faster.
- Is grocery shopping on your list? Try to group the foods you need by category - produce, meat, canned goods, etc.- so you can navigate the store without revisiting different sections and isles. The Paprika Recipe Manager app is great for this. You can create a consolidated grocery list from your selected recipes, and it will categorize everything you need by section so you can get in and out of the grocery store in no time.
4) Get To Work!
- While creating your to-do list may feel like an accomplishment in itself, once everything is down on paper and you have your action plan in place, now is the time to start getting things done
- Remember to keep actively engaging with your list- of course, check things off as you accomplish them, but also add and re-prioritize incomplete items as you progress through your list.
- By keeping up with your list, you ensure that you stay on top of things that must be done and refresh your memory on anything you may have forgotten.
Looking to learn more about the power of to-do lists? Check out Getting Things Done. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. David Allen emphasizes that your mind is for having ideas and not holding on to them and that creating lists allows you to free up brain space for more creative and productive thinking.
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