Double Your Productivity And Peace of Mind With Daily To-Do Lists

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Whenever I talk to people about to-do lists, they’re surprised that my biggest selling point isn’t being super-productive and achieving lots of things.

It’s being able to truly relax when you have time off, because you know you have achieved the imporant things.

If you’ve ever been taking time off (browsing the web, watching TV, whatever…), but couldn’t relax properly because you had a nagging feeling at the back of your mind that you should be working, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’ll start this post off by explaining why keeping daily to-do lists is working out so brilliantly for me, and why you should definitely at least give it a try (say, for a week), if you’re not used to keeping to-do lists.

In the second section, I’ll sum up my way of keeping daily to-do lists, which took me several years to figure out and perfect. Funnily enough, I recently came across Charlie Gilkey’s Premium Planners, which are virtually identical to the method I use, even though we both developed our methods completely independently. Seems like we’re on to something

Why keeping daily to-do lists rocks

As I mentioned, one of the biggest advantages is that:

• You can relax completely when you take time off

When you’ve completed your daily to-do list, you can safely relax, because you know you’ve done the important things. In fact, as I explain in the next section, it would be directly counter-productive to keep working after completing your to-do list.

• You remember things

One of the big reasons I used to leave things undone was not because I didn’t want to do them… but because I simply forgot!

With daily to-do lists, you always have a centralized place you check several times a day, so you can jot down things you want to remember.

• You get the important stuff done as opposed to busywork

As I’ll explain in a bit, one of the big parts of forming to-do lists is figuring out what the important things are. It’s not about doing more… it’s about doing the things that matter!

• You can whiz through a bunch of low-level tasks without constantly switching to high-level thinking

To-do lists are a surprisingly effective way to batch together low-level tasks. You know, the things where you don’t need to think much, once you know what you want to be doing.

If you didn’t have a list, you would need to switch back to high-level thinking after every task, to figure out what you want to be doing next. But if you figure out all the tasks in advance and write them on a to-do list, you will be batching all the high-level thinking together. And then you won’t need to tear yourself out of the flow of low-level thinking when going through the tasks.

How to keep daily to-do lists

As the name suggests, I keep a separate to-do list for each day. I sometimes jot down things a few days in advance, but generally I only finalize a daily list the evening before. And I’ve found quite a few aspects that drastically influence how well they work for me (both in terms of getting things done, and in terms of peace of mind).

1. When you finish your to-do list for the day early, DO NOT add any tasks to the list! Take the rest of the day off.

You might think that adding more tasks means you will accomplish more. But it trains your subconscious that finishing early only means punishment – more work. So you will end up procrastinating. Instead, write a to-do list for the day, and stick to it. That way, you will be motivated to get it done quickly, because it really means extra free time!

2. Things in brackets are strictly optional

As I mentioned, I use my to-do lists for two things – the important stuff, and the stuff I don’t want to forget. I do this because it means I have one convenient spot to look at. At the same time, it really helps to create clear boundaries between what’s important, and what’s merely urgent.

When I do my laundry, I put this on my to-do list so I don’t forget:

(- pick up laundry)

This is a perfect example of being urgent  but not important. Because… what happens if I don’t pick up the laundry from the washing machine? Worst case scenario, it will start to smell a bit musty, and I’ll have to wash it again the next day. No… big… deal.

Also note I say strictly optional. This doesn’t mean “well it’s kind of optional but I will feel bad if I don’t do it”. Strictly optional means “I’ll write it down on my to-do list so I don’t forget, but I won’t mind if I don’t do it.”

Along similar lines, I sometimes think of an important task in the middle of the day. Based on point number 1, I don’t just write it down, because that would seriously hurt my system. So instead, I jot it down in brackets. Nice to get done, but no big deal if I don’t. And then I put it without brackets for the next day.

3. Specific, actionable points

There’s a bit of an art to writing to-do lists. You might have heard of SMART goal-setting – which I think is a serious overkill for to-do lists. I found that the two most important points are Specific and Actionable. (I’m sure there’s a way to turn this into ASS goalsetting, but I couldn’t think of one. A Vladpoint for anyone who does that in the comments )

(Update: Aaaaand, a Vladpoint goes to Chris, for the ASS goalsetting system – Actionable, Specific, Simple! Hooray! )

It simply means writing tasks where you can take action right now, and where you have one clear specific thing to do.

For example, “Arrange a dinner with friends” is pretty vague. To turn it more specific, you could separate it into “Call X, Y and Z about the dinner” and “Call restaurant X to book a table”. Of course, it’s up to you how specific you need to get.

The “actionable” part also neatly brings me to my next point:

4. Separate time-dependent stuff from the rest

By time dependent, I mean stuff that has to happen at a certain time and place. For example, if there’s a swing dancing class on Friday at 7pm, you can’t expect to show up a few hours early or late, and still take part.

When I first started keeping to-do lists, I kept the two different categories bunched in the same list. But this confused me, because whenever I kept scanning my list for things I could do right now, I kept coming across the time-dependent tasks, which threw me off.

My solution? Keep them in two separate columns on your daily to-do lists.

That way, you can easily scan your to-do list for things that you can do right now, while at the same time keeping the important time-dependent stuff there.

Quick summary

If you’ve never kept to-do lists and all this seems a bit overwhelming, here’s  the core principle, to get you started:

Figure out the most important tasks for each day the evening before. During the day, complete your tasks as soon as possible, and allow yourself to take time off when you’re done.

Everything else is extra. Now grab a piece of paper and make a to-do list for tomorrow!

(image courtesy of koalazymonkey)