The to-do list. It is often the first tool that comes to mind when we are feeling disorganized and would like to get a better handle on managing our time. Sometimes, though, I wonder whether the to-do list is all it’s cracked up to be. Is it possible that to-do lists can cause more harm than good?
Personally, I go through phases where I use to-do lists for a while and then stop using them for a bit. I am not sure why this is, it just happens. The types of lists that I have experimented with are almost as varied as their contents. There is the big master list of all of the things that I would like to accomplish. Then there is the smaller list of what I would like to accomplish each day. There are lists that deal only with one area of my life, such as a weight loss to-do list and a house cleaning to-do list. The one that I use most often is the daily list. I take a few minutes in the morning and think of all of the things that I would like to accomplish that day.
My daily lists can get quite long and that is where I run into a problem. First, if I have made a long list then that means that I have spent a bit of time making it, time that I could have used to do other things. More importantly, the longer my to-do list is, the more likely it is that I will not finish all of the things on it that day. When I do not finish the list of things that I have set out to accomplish, I do not feel good. One day as I was feeling badly that I did not get more of my to-do list done, I realized that the problem was not that I was an unproductive person, only that I had set unrealistic goals for myself that day.
The next day I made a point to keep my list short, only the absolute essentials. After all, I could add more to it later if I finished all of the things that were on it. At the end of that day, I had finished my short list and had done a few “extra” things that were not on the list. I felt like I had accomplished a lot and it felt great. From time to time, I have to remind myself to keep my to-do list realistic. When I do that, I find that the to-do list is a great tool that helps me make good use of my time.
What do you think of to-do lists? Are there other things that help you make good use of your time?