How To Use a ToDo List in Your Time Management System

It doesn’t matter if your ToDo List is a post-it-note, a side of wallpaper, or an App, if you don’t use the ToDo List properly to support your time management system, it will start to feel like an Albatross hanging around your neck.

A well designed properly ToDo list can be an energizing tool in your time management system.  Done badly, and it will seem like the lid on a claustrophobic box, stifling your productivity and leaving you unfulfilled.

A good todo list will guide you through the day, leaving you feeling productive and vital.  A disorganised todo list adds to the confusion and leaves you feeling drained.

Firstly, I recommend you consider how items get onto your ToDo list.  Do you gather little scibbled notes on the backs of business cards, scraps of paper, serviettes and scratch reminders on the crumpled receipts from under the carpet of the footwell of the passenger seat?  I don’t know about you, but these little gems never seem to find their way out from the corners of my pockets and into the master list, which means the best of my little idea nuggets never make it out of the fluff and into reality.

I sorted this out with an iphone as it happens.  A free notebook app means I can keep all my notes in the one place – my daily collection list – and because I’ve always got the phone with me then I can always record this stuff in the one place.  And that is the key.  One Place.

How To Structure An Energising ToDo List For Your Time Management System

1.  It’s doable.  Sounds silly but loads of people carry around ToDo lists which are pages long and can’t possibly be done in a day, or even a week or a month.

2.  It’s up to date.  Some stuff comes off your ToDo list as you, well, do it.  Other stuff doesn’t get done, until eventually it’s no longer relevant.  So take it off.

3.  You can read it.  It’s legible and it’s written out in full.  If you need to call your Cousin on their Birthday then the list says who you’re calling and why.  Not just ‘Cousin’.  It might make sense when you write it, but after a while your brain will have to jump through a couple of hoops to get back to what it’s all about.  All wasted time and energy.

4.  Your todo list is in one place, in your planner, your book or handheld or iphone.  Not on post-it-notes stuck on your laptop.

5.  Only today’s ToDo’s (and I dare you to say that one after you’ve had a couple) are on your list.  Don’t carry around a years worth of work with you, because a mountain of undone tasks staring you in the face day in day out is draining.

6.  Each item is a manageable task.  You do not want an item ‘write book.’  But ‘write chaper outline’ is manageable, it is a complete task within a bigger project and it will move you towards the end point.

7.  It contains your absolute priorities for the day.

8.  Include an estimation of how long each item will take.  This means that if you have 10 minutes free before lunch, you can scan down your list, find a 10 minute job and get it done before the pasta arrives.

Why Do You Need A Todo List In Your Time Management System?

How much time do you spend during the day not knowing what to do next?  A ToDo list is your guide through the day and it leads you onto the next task.  It is not your boss.  It’s role is to help you focus on where your energy should be channeled right now.

Creating a ToDo list which works is a creative process.  It’s not a vomit of a pile of stuff you might want to get done.  It’s an achievable plot to get done what you want to do during one particular day.  And it needs replanning.  Give your Todo list the respect it deserves by taking a few minutes in the middle of the day to review how it’s all going.  Do you need to reprioritise?

Above all, when you put a ToDo list into your time management system you need to be kind to yourself.  Sometimes other stuff gets in the way – a phone call with a client takes an hour instead of 10 minutes, or the gear box drops out of the car on the way to a meeting.  You can’t odds this happening, but you can chill out by using your ToDo list to manage your tasks and ensure the key items get done.

Related articles

• Online To-do list task manager with List Maker (madrasgeek.com)
• Iphone app turns your to-do list into a game (springwise.com)