7 Rules for Realistic To-Do Lists That Keep You Motivated
It took me 10 years to realize what I’ve been doing wrong.
It’s not your work ethic you’ve to worry about.
Most probably you’re just doing To-Do lists the wrong way.
Here are the seven rules that helped me to improve my task-planning process:
#1 Break It Up Into Two Parts
How will this help you? Get a clear structure.
Many people use To-Do lists the wrong way.
They mix life goals (learn to speak Spanish), things they would do anyway (have a shower), or daily habits (go for a run).
The first principle to a good overview of your To-Dos is that long-term goals — such as learning to speak a new language or becoming sportive — should not be on the list.
You can choose to break them up into proper tasks, like listening to a Spanish audiobook for 15 min, to be able to include them or you can create another goal list.
Second, things we do no matter what should be excluded as well because they simply distort our duties.
I understand that some need a reminder for unwelcomed tasks. I sometimes do.
Therefore, I like to divide my To-Do list into daily tasks and actually To-Dos:
Dailies are the duties I want to include to develop a habit or rhythm. I usually do them every day or every other day
The second part of the list is solely for our To-Dos. They don’t recur every day. They are more punctual, like creating a report or calling your tax consultant
Splitting the two segments helps to keep your list from cluttering and gives us a clear structure.
#2 Make It a No-Brainer
How will this help you? Understand the task better.
One of the most common mistakes is that people describe their duties in only one or two words.
The more precise we formulate a To-Do, the better we can perform it.
So, instead of writing research journalists, we should write: research contact persons of lifestyle magazines.
Even better would be: research contact persons (name, email, and telephone number) of lifestyle magazines.
There you have it.
This is a formulation that cannot be misunderstood.
It’s clear and tells us exactly what we have to do.
And because it’s formulated in an active and precise way, we‘re far more inclined to do it.
#3 Add an Objective
How will this help you? You’ll know when to stop.
If we want to perform a task, it’s vital that we’re clear about what we want to achieve before even starting to work on it.
A clear formulation is one part of it.
On top, each item on our list should have a quantification too.
In the example above, we would write research four contact persons (name, email, and telephone number) of lifestyle magazines.
This way, we know when our duty is completed, namely as soon as we have exactly four points of contact from lifestyle magazines.
Otherwise, we might just go on and on with our task until we‘ve spent hours on it and still don‘t feel satisfied with the outcome.
#4 Include a Duration
How will this help you? Better time management.
When I felt that my To-Do lists didn’t get shorter no matter how much I worked, I knew that something was wrong with my time management.
I started to think about how long I might need to complete the task and added the time to my list.
And because our day only has limited hours available, it quickly became clear that I was flooding my day with too many duties.
I adapted the number of tasks and suddenly knew just how many tasks I could fit into my day.
As a result, I didn’t feel unproductive anymore even if I only completed two activities.
If both required four hours of work, it was okay.
Moreover, after completing the task, I also added how long it really took me to complete each duty.
This is a great way to optimize your time management.
You see which activities take longer and which are finished quicker, which in turn will influence your future planning.
#5 Set a Time Cap per Day
How will this help you? Feel less stressed and stop working overtime.
We always need a buffer.
When I’m planning my day, I tend to sequence one task right after another, ignoring the fact that I also need breaks or I could get distracted.
My day might look busy and optimized, but I always found myself working longer than I actually intended to, even though I wasn’t spilling time.
This is especially common in the beginning when you‘re in the middle of discovering how long each task takes you.
So, I started limiting my scheduled working time to seven hours a day, which gave me one to two hours of buffer for unexpected things.
The better your understanding of each duty becomes, the smaller the buffer will become.
#6 Use Visual Cues
How will this help you? Instant satisfaction and more motivation.
In the book Tiny Habits, B.J. Fogg explains why instant gratification is so important in developing new habits that stick.
Our mind prefers short-term rewards over long-term satisfaction.
So if we want to prompt ourselves to do a specific task, we must relate it to a positive effect or instant reward.
Ticking off items is such a positive link.
It sets endorphins free, which make us happy and motivate us to go after the next item on our lists.
If you don’t want to cross them out, you can also put all completed tasks on a “Done”-list.
Your brain will want to start the second task so it gets another reward soon.
#7 Assign Due Dates
How will this help you? Being on time.
To-Dos should be added to the list when they come to our minds.
But not all tasks must be completed on the same or next day, or even this week.
To keep an overview of when your duties are due, you should add a deadline to your items.
You can either make a third section on your list with tasks that have a longer deadline or create a second, entirely different list for the tasks that are due in a few weeks or even months.
Again, this helps to not feel overwhelmed by a seemingly endless list of tasks.
This is your to-do list, so pick from the strategies above to find what suits you.
If you’re not certain which of the rules it works for you, experiment and mix-and-match several combinations.
You’ll find the right way to be productive.