Tag Archives: To Do List

How A Well Organized To-Do List Helps You Be More Productive

How A Well Organized To-Do List Helps You Be More Productive

Sure, we know all the rules there are to implementing time management systems and on almost all of them, having a to-do list is one major component. While writing down all your tasks help keep us feel organized, it’s the execution that ensures the list’s efficiency and our productivity. For example, you might write down all the tasks you have to do today that involve building an email campaign. But if you never even visit the list, you’ll never get around to doing it. Or your tasks might be in random order, therefore, actually ineffective in keeping you on track and organized.

So, to create an effective to-do list, here are three simple but essential steps:

1. Create a master list

  • A master list is one giant list that captures everything on your plate. Yes, everything! Don’t leave anything behind. Write down the big things like “do research on workflow automation tools” or “get swatches for wedding dresses.” But also, include the small things like “pick up milk” or “go to the post-office.” Collect everything you used to remind yourself of these tasks: post-its, napkins, scraps of paper, etc. and get all the information on to one master list.

Note: each task you add to your master list should be a simple, single step task. So you would have to break down large scale tasks (e.g. plan wedding), into smaller tasks (e.g. send our RSVPs).

  • Transcribe these tasks into a word document. Why? A digital master list is easier to update than one that is on paper.
  • Mark (or score) them in order of priority. It’s up to you which system to use (A-B-C, 1-2-3, symbols, or words).
  • Sit down with your tracker. You can use:

2. Have a tracking/planning system

  • Sit down with your tracker. You can use:
  1. Tabletop/wall calendar
  2. Smartphone app
  3. Daily planner
  4. etc.
  • Enter all the tasks that require a specific time and date (meetings, appointments, deadlines, birthdays, etc.)
  • Next, find a spot in your tracking system for all the tasks that are recurring (daily, weekly, monthly). Examples are exercise (daily), laundry (weekly), and paying phone bills (monthly).
  • Once all of these tasks are entered, you will see at a glance, how much time you really have to work on all the other things.

3. Put those two together

Once you’re done with the first 2 steps, you should now have a master list of all the things you need to accomplish and a tracking system that tells you when you need to accomplish these tasks. As a bonus, you will also see how much time you have left to do other things.

The initial set-up does take quite some time but will be easy to maintain as you go along. Plus, it will help keep you focused and make time management easier. In one quick check, you can see if you have too many things to do and what you realistically have time for. This system keeps you from biting off more than you can chew. Do you have your own to-do list or prioritization system? Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

How to use lists to train your brain to be more productive

How to use lists to train your brain to be more productive

Aaah, the joys of checking off all the tasks on your checklist is comparable to the feeling of success. Don’t you feel accomplished after being able to cross things off of a list? It makes you feel like you’ve made it and that you’ve got it together, doesn’t’ it?

All of us use lists to track down work projects and personal projects – especially since most of those involve many moving parts or other people. The most important reason why this work is because it serves as a central “command center” to keep you organized and on task.

Why do lists work?
List works because they break a project down into smaller goals. Smaller goals are inherently short term. If you’re going for S.M.A.R.T. goals, the list already takes care of the specific, measurable, and time-bound part of it. It’s now up to you to take care of the attainable and realistic part in S.M.A.R.T.

How can we use it to train our brain?
Whenever we experience success, even if it is in small doses, our beautiful and amazing brain releases dopamine – a chemical that is both hormone and neurotransmitter often connected to a feeling of pleasure, reward, and motivation. The release of dopamine whenever we complete a task facilitates “self-directed learning”. This is why we strive to keep repeating the same actions that drive us towards success.

Once we are positively motivated, we learn to take the same actions to get the same feeling over and over. Now, back to checking things off of our list. We feel a sense of accomplishment whenever we cross or tick things off of our list, right? That’s because our brain releases dopamine to help us feel good. If the goal is to cross as many things off the list, our brain rewards us every time we do so with the feel-good chemical. This ‘motivates’ us to keep doing what we’re doing to achieve positive results. It now becomes a habit.

Get into the habit of creating lists
You can use your smartphone for this. With apps like Google Keep, Google Tasks, Trello, etc. All of these have checklist functions that you can build on or even share with others. Or if you’re old school, good old trusty pen and paper will do. Just make sure that your list has all the important details of your task. For example, you can write down ‘go to the grocery store’ on your to-do list but a better way would be to write ‘go to the grocery store to get cleaning supplies’ and then proceed to list the cleaning supplies down. Makes more sense, right?

What about you? Do you like having lists written down or do you prefer to use mobile apps to keep your lists? What are the apps that you use? Care to share them with us in the comments? Always remember to stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Simple ways to find out your priorities from a to-do list

Simple ways to find out your priorities from a to-do list

Not every item on your to-do list is of equal importance. Be honest with yourself, some task won’t mean the end of the world if they don’t get done. When everything on your to-do list is a priority, then nothing is. This is why you should stick to 1 to 3 priorities and write them at the very top of your list. If you overload your to-do list with things that must absolutely get done, then nothing will.

We all know how hard it is to pick priority items when you have your plate full. So without further ado, here are 4 tips to help you prioritize your action items.

Write a to-do list
You should have seen this one coming. It is hard to pick out a priority task if you don’t even have a list. So get yourself organized and create a to-do list. List everything that you need to get done and categorize them into whatever system works for you. Some examples are:

Home
❏ Pick up dry cleaning
❏ Take kids to school
❏ Get ingredients for dinner

Work
❏ Draft newsletter
❏ Build a mailing list
❏ Send out newsletter campaigns

Or you can categorize them into activities:

Writing
❏ Create an outline
❏ Draft chapter 1

Layout
❏ Pick images
❏ Create template

Pick a system that works for you and stick to that.

Pick your priority tasks.
Pick one to three priority task per day (or a week, depending on what system works for you). The productivity powerhouse, Dr. John Maxwell said: “Things that matter most should not be at the mercy of things that matter least.” That should guide you in picking your priority tasks. Pick the task that has the most impact and importance.

Stop trying to do things yourself.
Yes, I mean learn how to delegate tasks that are urgent but not important. Items that require immediate action, but do not contribute to the goal can be delegated or better yet, automated. For example, email inquiries can be delegated, or you can create canned responses for the team to use.

However, I also mean stop trying to figure out the task by yourself. If you have a question, ask. If the task assigned to you seems vague, the burden of clarifying falls on the task giver, not on you. So go back to the person who assigned you the task and find out exactly what they need you to do. Otherwise, do not accept tasks without the necessary details needed to complete the work.

Find time to plan.
Find a convenient time to plan your activities. Carve out a quiet time when you can look at your schedule and upcoming activities so that you can plan your list accordingly. Friday afternoons could work so that your to-do list is still fresh on your mind. Or you could go for Sunday evenings so that you can plan for the rest of the week in advance. Do whatever works best with your schedule. Once your list is complete, you can pick out your priorities by day or by week – whichever works for you.

What are your top tips on prioritizing? Care to share them with us? Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help