My New Favorite To-Do List Method
Recently (during the Whole Life Challenge I did in January and February this year) I tried a new to-do list method, and now I am totally hooked. Here’s how it works:
- Each day, write down one thing you *must* do
- Write down two things you would *like* to do
- Write down three things it would be *nice* to do
- By the end of the day, be sure to do the *must* task, plus one (yes! just one!) of the other tasks on your list
- Rinse and repeat the next day
This method has totally transformed my list-making. I’m serious!
I used to make lists of everything I was going to do on a given day and then cross off the ones I did. Pretty basic. But that method left me feeling a bit unfinished, and for a few days I would keep going through that same list, making it messy with all my scribbling out, adding new items, trying to make sense of things by putting numbers next to tasks and doing them in a particular order.... It got kind of exhausting.
When I first started this new method, I worried a little bit that I would have more than 6 tasks to do on any given day, and that I wouldn’t adequately accomplish my day’s work. But the simplicity of paring down my mental to-do list was like magic. I realized that I could always do more than I had written down, but focusing my thoughts gave me a lot of clarity of what was most important on a given day.
So, because I realize tomorrow is another day, I just get today’s tasks done and then that night (or the next morning) I make a new list.
Try it out, see what you think, let me know how it goes!