2023-01-24 A quick introduction to Todo Lists done right

I had a rough night and I slept in, so just a quick one. I have for tomorrow some more advanced techniques for more complicated situations.

Let’s talk about todo lists. You know, those messy notes that live on some paper, your email inbox, a couple of note files, and mostly your brain, listing all the things you need to do. I know that’s what I did. In fact, that’s still what I sometimes end up doing.

There’s a better way, though.

Your todo list should live in a single place. In the past, I have used successfully a paper notebook, for which I have used a slightly different method. These days, I just keep my list in a text file.

Here’s what you do.

First write down all the tasks you need to work on. Large and small, as they come to mind.

Then take tasks and make them all as small as you can. Something I complete in 30 to 60 minutes maximum works well for me.

Now go through your list and prioritize it. You should actually mark the priority on the list, before sorting. I do numbers (1 to 5), some people do letters (say A to F). That way, you can see if there’s too many “top priority” tasks.

When you prioritize, consider that important stuff might not be super urgent, but might deserve a higher spot.

Ok. Now order it by priority.

And that’s pretty much it. Next, you trust the planning, and go do those tasks in the order you determined. When each task is done, delete it or strike it through.

At the end of the day, or tomorrow first thing, or whenever you decide to do some planning, add any new task and reprioritize. You should reprioritize all the tasks, not just the new ones, because the world changes all the time.

Easy peasy. This works well for a basic, but potentially large, list of tasks that you have to do.

Do you have a different method?

If you try this one, let me know how it works for you!