4 Simple Changes to Complete Your To-Do List Every Day
Make four simple changes to the way you create your to-do lists to always complete all your items.
#1 Eliminate the Obvious
Stop writing down the obvious things you do on a daily basis, like “get lunch” or “cook dinner”.
There’s no reason to keep these things on your daily list.
#2 Break Your List into 3 Sections
Organize your to-dos into three sections:
Digital Quickies: short tasks that you can complete on the laptop or smartphone
Work: the most critical tasks for the day
Real World: things that can’t be done at work or digitally, such as errands
#3 Complete the Least Time-Consuming Digital Task in the First Hour of the Day
Digital tasks don‘t have to happen in real-time (an email can be sent whenever, versus a phone call that requires two people to be available at the same time).
They can be taken care of in a few minutes each.
Start your morning with a win by completing the easiest digital-quickie.
#4 Add Time Estimates to Big Tasks
Adding a simple time estimate, for example, “Do FastCo News reporting – 3 hrs” allows you to allocate enough time to get those tasks done.
Start using this new format to complete every task on your daily lists.
It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you scratch the last item off and toss that yellow Post-it in the trash.
Interesting tweaks to the standard to do list format, I shall experiment!
Thank you for pointing this out. Adding time to my task allows me to produce valuables.