Building Effective To-Do Lists
I love To-do lists and Projects. There’s something super satisfying about ticking that box, or crossing a task off your list! It just means you’re inching one step closer towards completion of a certain project or goal.
There are times though, when I look at my list of 1000 things to do (okay, I exaggerate, the number is usually 8-10), and I just end up blankly staring at the list.
Uh…what the hell should I do next?!
Have any of you encountered such a situation? I certainly have, many many times!
Since enrolling in ‘Building A Second Brain’, I’ve started to learn many tips and tricks on personal knowledge management, and productivity, and I’ve already made small tweaks to my everyday workflow. I’ve found that I’m ‘forgetting’ less, and also having less resistance towards executing a task!
1) Quick capture your thoughts and to-dos
Our brains are not hard drives and are not meant for storing so much information! We as a species are also SUPER forgetful. Seriously, sometimes you’re just so busy, you can’t depend on your brain to store all this extra information. Even if you do, there is a high chance that the task will slip your mind. How often have we been struck by an amazing idea, just to forget about it 15 minutes later?
Damn, I should have written it down!
Indeed, the best thing to do is to ‘write it down’ - or do a quick capture of your task or idea at hand. You can do this by writing the task on a paper or a book. Lately, I’ve switched to doing this digitally because it’s much faster. I have a keyboard shortcut where I can just quickly take notes without even giving it a second thought!
Here is an example of my quick capture list:
Scrappy, simple and in very raw in format. It doesn’t matter! These are called ‘open loops’ - basically anything you need to get done! I personally use the app ‘Things’ (for IOS) to capture ANY thought that comes to mind, or anything I need to do!
2) Clarify: What is the next PHYSICAL action required?
Once you have these written down, the next thing is to clarify the outcome you want for each of them. The best way of thinking of it is ‘What is the next PHYSICAL action required to execute this task?’
Very often, the task written down can be quite unclear just because the phrases we use are themselves ambiguous in nature.
Instead of using such words, we should opt to use actions verbs, they help to further break down and clarify each task. Most times, it makes things less daunting to do as well.
The aim is to ensure that your To-Do list is CLEAR & COMPLETE.
These are simple tweaks, but I was surprised at how effective they were. I will admit that it took me awhile to get use to using action verbs for my tasks, but the pros outweigh the cons. I’ve even put these into my shortcut tools like ‘text expander’ to help facilitate this process. It’s only been about 2 weeks, but I can definitely feel the effects!
Try it, and let me know what you all think about it, and if has impacted the execution of your to-do lists!
-
If you’re keen to find out more about supercharging your Task Management skills, check out Tiago Forte’s course on ‘Getting Things Done Like A Boss’! (not an affiliate link, I TRULY believe the course is SUPER useful, and that everyone stands to benefit from it!)
