I’m sure that we all have them. On our phones, sticky notes, backs of envelopes, white boards, all over where we live. They may be one item long or they may be lines and lines long. It is, the horror and majesty of the omnipresent to-do list!

 

The all-powerful to-do list is probably one of the most loved and hated tools for modern workers. You can call it all sorts of things (work items, honey-do, agenda, etc but we know what it is). There is almost endless commentary these days on productivity, time management, and getting things done. There is a lot of good advice and some less helpful advice. Product after product claims to make it easier to manage to-do lists. Not to mention the many, many to-do list and productivity apps one can download. Something about it must be useful for us to continuing pursuing endless variation and yet there always seems to be something to improve upon. 

 

I, personally, love my lists. When I was young, I would inventory and list out almost anything you can think: collectible cards, action figures, animal sightings, classes, you name it, I likely listed it out somewhere. During classes in college and law school, I kept pretty good notes and extensive reference lists for pages, cases, notes, etc. I still keep a lot of notes and lists. Its the number one way I manage my time but I came to the realization that I’ve been managing my to-do lists all wrong.

 

First, group tasks together. They should not be separated from their end goal. We tend to collect tasks all together so we can see them all at once. This makes sense – how do I choose what to do next if I cannot remember (I never remember….) or if I cannot see all tasks at once.  However, its then easy to lose a sense of the item’s value. We know its important, we may remember some context, but as it moves around the to-do list day after day it starts to lose its relevance, it starts to lose its connection to the end goal. 

 

Most tasks or items are not end goals in and of themselves, many are part of broader projects. Even if an item is a goal in and of itself – e.g. fix the guest room toilet – I can connect it to a bigger picture – house maintenance – to add importance and impetus to the item. That is, I find that the simplest way for me to drive myself to complete tasks off of my to-do list is to consistently time them back into the bigger project or goal. If I separate them from some larger project management, then they just become random tasks that get put off over and over. 

 

Second, tasks must be specific. When you’re trying to start out your day or trying to continue productivity while tired from your day, it is not in your best interest to force yourself to figure out by some cryptic description of a problem. It is much better to set aside specific time when you’re at your best to think through what you need done and then plan out the specific steps (remember, draw the flamingo one step at a time!) and then, when you have time, pick a specific item and knock it out. Lot’s more to talk about here and a few books but those will come another day.

 

For example, I have a lot of work I need to do in order to get MirthnCo up and running. One potential list of work items to get done would look like this:

Each of those items is likely enough to remind me what I need to do next. It includes cyclical work items and others like finding sponsors and completing audio that will be reusable for multiple episodes. However, those are really more goals or the topical level of work items. Instead, I break it down:

These are more specific tasks, connected to a broader goal. It is more clear when each of the subtasks are complete. Even for those more open ended “research” topics, I know when I’ve done research and when I have not.