Why You Should Organize Your To-Dos By Mental State

You want to do the right work for your given mental state at any given moment.

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As long as you have the proper due dates attached to your tasks, it doesn’t matter what project those to-dos are for.

What matters is your ability to do those tasks in an energy-efficient way.

Organize your tasks using these mental states to optimize your creative output:

• Prioritize: decide what needs to be done, and what can’t or shouldn’t be done

• Generate: generate creative products, such as writing a blog post or brainstorming a podcast conversation

• Explore: collect raw materials for creative insights. For example, reading about a topic that interests you

• Research: research to answer specific questions for a project, such as what year an event happened or reviewing a scientific paper

• Polish: refine a product and get it ready to ship. For example, editing a book

• Administrate: take care of the pesky details of keeping your business running, such as reviewing finances, or tweaking ad campaigns

• Recharge: rest, relax, and disconnect

Block out your time for each mental state in accordance with the nature of your project.

Ideally, you can work with the ebbs and flows of your creative energy, so that you can predict what type of work you’re best equipped for based on time of day, or even day of the week.

The beauty of organizing your to-dos by the mental state is that it keeps you from getting sidetracked during task transitions and enables you to focus more deeply on the task at hand.

Manage your mental energy and you‘ll have better insights and an easier time staying on track.

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