You CAN get organized using To-Do lists

Photo by Emma Matthews Digital Content Production on Unsplash

Most people have a love/hate relationship with To-Do lists. Some people swear by them, but most regard them as useless.

Two of the popular complaints I hear are:

• My list gets too long and daunting. I add more things than I ever check off.
• My list only reflects my obligations to other people, not my own goals

Let me describe how I made my To-Do list highly effective for me, and hopefully it will work for you too. Like most people, I experimented with numerous systems and apps, but I settled on Todoist (the free version). Simple, easy-to-use, and it works across my devices. But this story is going to be app-agnostic. I recommend an app over one of those planners because a digital list is a more efficient tool. It’s quicker, and I already have a smartphone, so why carry a book and pen around, but each to their own.

My list reflects three fundamental types of tasks:

• Immediate items I need to get done in the next few days so that I don’t forget. E.g.: Mail Parcel, Call Dave, Renew Insurance, buy a gift for Rebecca
• My long-term projects and their tasks
• Things I must do for other people

Let’s break this down and then I’ll touch on the one thing that makes it all work.