To-do list!
I was 24 years old when first introduced to the concept.
I remember asking a friend of mine, “How do you create your to-do list? What do you do with the tasks that you don’t complete in the given day?”
He said, “Each day I create my to-do list. The rule is that it must not exceed a single page. Whatever doesn’t get finished, I carry over onto the next day’s to-do list. This way I start from scratch everyday.”
I was blown away by what I heard, especially the point about starting from scratch everyday.
Not beating myself up over the tasks I didn’t complete.
Rather, accepting them as tasks to work toward the next day.
Since that conversation, I’ve gone through hundreds of iterations of my to-do list.
I’ve created month long excel sheets with all of the tasks outlined on a single page. Days into such method, I abandoned it. I became overwhelmed when I saw all of the items printed on a 24 x 36 piece of paper.
I’ve covered my wall with sticky notes. Each sticky note had one task on it. This method gave me the opportunity to focus on a single task at a time. It eliminated multitasking. However, made me more anxious every time I looked at the wall and saw 50 different sticky notes.
I’ve listened to podcasts on to-do lists. The consensus was to focus on three tasks per day.
Today, my to-do list is a single sticky note with five items on it.
Through trial and error, I have found a method that works for me.
Do what works for you.
Whatever doesn’t get finished, carries over onto the next day’s to-do list.
As a friend of mine, Shauna (Sikorski) Griffiths, once told me, “Your to-do list will always be there tomorrow.”
