Ever since I started working, I've always been a big fan of To Do lists. I find that if I put things down on paper, and out of my brain, it relaxes me as I know that I don't have to constantly remind myself that I need to do XYZ. But over the years, I changed the way I managed my lists a few times, regularly changing my method, testing it for a while and changing it again to see if I could find something better.
Why use To Do lists?
I use To Do lists for many things at work.
- Master list: Any time I think of something that will need to be done in a near future, whether it's an instruction coming from my boss, an idea I just got, or an action prompted by an email, I add it to my master list. This is a long list of tasks that I might sort or prioritize, but I don' overstress about it. It's mainly my brain dump.
- Project lists: When I start a new project, I like to think of the big picture and try to write down all the steps of the project in a to do list. I don't usually manage large team projects so I don't need to use complex project plans with gantt charts and all the fluff, but I like to know what's ahead of me.
- Week priority: I've recently tried to focus my attention to getting at least one big thing done during the week. So at the beginning of the week I jot down the main things I want to achieve for that particular week. In this list I do put priorities, and I try to refer to it every day to remind myself to do the important things first.
- Daily To Do list: This is my most important and useful list, the one I have under my eyes at all time. What am I doing today? It's in the list. I write all the tasks that I need to work on that day, prioritize them and check them as I do them - my ultimate satisfaction. After all, what's the point of a check list if you don't cross anything off it?
I'll talk more in details about the daily list, because I've changed quite a few times my way to approach it.
How I manage my daily To Do list:
- Writing a new list every day: At first I used to write my To Do list on a notepad and cross things off as I finished them. I would then add new tasks, and continue on the same page until I had no more room and needed to rewrite the list. So the same page might be used for 3 or 4 days depending on how much progress I would make, or how many tasks I had on the list. This wasn't really a daily list, it was almost a master list, except that it didn't allow me to see priorities and it was messy. So now, every day I write a fresh list, with only the items I plan to work on for that day, and I don't cross them, I add a tick in front of them, so that it doesn't become too messy.
- Using a notebook instead of a notepad: Like I said, I used to write my list on a notepad, and once the page would be full or too messy, I would tear off the page and rewrite it. For the last 3 years I've changed from a notepad to a notebook, and since I add a new page every day, I end up with a real history of what I've done. I find that it can be useful to review my task lists from time to time to check how I manage my work. If I see that half of the tasks never get ticked, obviously I plan too much for the day. It also helps me remember when I started a particular project, or how long it took me to do something.
- Adding some notes: I've always been a big fan of journaling, so I tried to incorporate that in my work routine. At the end of each day, I would add a few notes at the bottom of my list, asking myself these questions: What did I achieve today? What is blocking me to make progress? Did I learn anything?
- Preparing the list in the evening: I used to write my list first thing in the morning, but now what I do is that at the end of the day I review my work as described above, look for the next day's priorities and add them to the list. When I come to the office in the morning, I instantly know what I need to work on and I can get started straight away without any distraction.
Switching to paperless
I've been using paper notebooks for ages. I Iove writing on paper, somehow I find that my ideas are clearer than when I write on the computer. But I often got frustrated with my notebooks because I didn't necessarily have them with me at all time. For example, it might be that I think of something really important to do at work when I am at home, or vice versa. So having only a paper version in my office didn't help and I often looked for a digital alternative without ever making the switch.
The solution presented itself to me a few weeks ago when I read a review of an online tool called Workflowy.
Workflowy is a cloud based note taking application, but bare of any distractions, and relying mainly on bullet lists. All you do is write bullet lists, and dig down in the levels of your lists, until you're satisfied that you covered enough details. There is no fancy menu, no formatting possible, it's a plain white page with some black text and it works just like a paper sheet, except that you can dig in your content, zooming in or out at will.
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So now I've changed my routine slightly and I have everything in Workflowy:
- My master list, in which single items can become project lists
- My week priorities,
- My daily to do list. And the big change is that my daily list now has work and personal items on it, because I can view the list anywhere I am, even on my iPhone thanks to the app.
Question: Do you use To Do lists? How do you manage them?
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