can be an important part
of taking your productivity to the next level.
What would your life be like, if you were even more organized than you are right now? Would you be happier? Would you have more time for exercise? I think you would. In fact, I’m sure of it.
Being disorganized is expensive. Being organized saves you money. Checklists help take your productivity to the next level.
For humans, life just seems to work better when we’re organized.
Being organized means we move through each day productively and end each night basking in a feeling of true accomplishment for our day’s efforts.
But completing projects sometimes feels like traveling through the desert — and it’s better to travel the hot, sandy desert cheerfully by horse than it is to crawl desperately on your hands and knees! A good checklist can be like a strong, wise horse who helps you navigate the journey of your busy life.
Using a Checklist Will Help You Get Motivated in your Daily Life
A good system is simple. I use four primary checklists throughout my busy week:
- a preprinted checklist for tasks I do every day: my “quotidian“
- another preprinted checklist is for tasks I do once-a-week
- a list of professional “one-offs” for work (I maintain this list online so I can collaborate with my associates)
- a list of personal “one-offs” for home (this list is hand-written)
Three of the above checklists I keep on clipboards, the other I keep on a web-based checklist app that I (and my colleagues) can access from my laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
These 4 lists plus my schedule (I use Google Calendar) is all I need to get more done in a day!
But are checklists right for you?
a good checklist can help you manage your time and stay on track
The Dane Technique:
How to Get Seriously Organized using Checklists ~ e-Workbook
“…The Dane Technique provides concise, easy to understand, specific instructions
for people who want to get organized using checklists.
Beginning with a simple, yet powerful, manifesto
the book quickly walks the reader through a series of exercises
leading the reader to their own checklists.
No specific forms or software are required
leaving the format up to each unique and, soon to be organized, happy person”~ Paul Puckett, Asset Portfolio Manager
This e-Workbook will help you to get better organized. In order to improve your self-care and increase your health protocols, you need a simple productivity system — a good system can help you to find extra time and energy and to create a new schedule and daily routine that works best for your life. Individually, The Dane Technique is $4.95, or you can enjoy the value and benefits of the entire Kit for $14.95.
“…making a list felt like a chore
but after reading Dane’s “How To Get Seriously Organized Using Checklists”
I am now understanding how important lists are. My life is becoming clutter free
and I get more accomplished throughout the day because the lists suggested by Dane
are helping me be more productive in my personal and business life.
Quotidian list is my favorite! Don’t know what that is? Get the book and find out!
Trust me, it will change your life!”
~ Doina Oncel, Solutions Specialist for Non-Profits
By utilizing principles of Success Psychology, the Longevity Lifestyle Kit ensures that your new, positive habits will “stick” (instead of having you start out with good intentions and then falling back into the same old habits). There are 5 key pieces to the Kit:
“Live with Intention. Create a happy, balanced life. We all want this, right? Dane’s tips and techniques in his checklist book are a great way to reduce stress and be more productive. I’m a list maker, and follow a daily plan. But, sometimes things get in the way of completing my daily list. I really like thinking of my daily list as organic and always improving. If you aren’t a list-maker — he provides simple principles that will make a positive difference”
~ Margie Arnett, University Professor
Stay On Track! The 2 Best Reasons to Use a Checklist
When you’re organized, you use your time more effectively — and when you’re able to get more done in less time, it then creates more extra free time for you to enjoy life’s pleasures! Everyone falls off the organizing-wagon sometimes, and here are some hints to help get you productive again so you can arrive at end of your day — and your week — fresh, hydrated, and optimistic!
Even though the technique of keeping a current checklist of things-to-do will help you to reach your goals, that’s not even the primary reason why I endorse it. Here are two better reasons:
Reason #1: Crafting a Checklist is Like Meditating
The process of crafting a to-do list helps you spill the contents of your noisy mind onto paper so that you can feel better and free up space to think more creatively. It creates serenity.
Reason #2: The Process of Using a Checklist Is Clarifying
List-making helps you to realign with your motivation and clarity. It refocuses your energy!
It’s true that everyone has a different metabolism and everyone processes information differently, and you might be tempted to think that you’re not a list-making type of person — that you’re too in-the-moment, too creative… or too tired! But, really, all types of people benefit from using a checklist, and the trick is to figure out which type you are.
“…list-Making helps you to realign with your motivation and clarity”
Optimize your life! Our Longevity e-Newsletter is designed to provide you with the accountability you need to make improvements in how you manage your time, energy and nutrition. Every two weeks, subscribers receive a short, new strategy. And, it’s free. Sign-up at the bottom of this page.
The 3 Ways People Get Motivated
Primarily, there are 3 types of people: those that scribble down their to-do lists at night, those that make their lists in the morning, and those that keep an on-going list on their computer in real time.
Type #1 ~ Night People
The night-folks like to empty their brains before bed so that they can relax and sleep better. They sit down at the dining room table for a few minutes in the evening, and visualize their day tomorrow, writing down everything that comes to mind.
Type #2 ~ Morning People
The day-folks think more clearly in the a.m., and like to take a few moments in the morning to write down what they want to accomplish that same day, usually while they have their tea or coffee.
Type #3 ~ Tech-Savvy People
Tech-Savvy People are these gadgety folks that habitually keep an eye on their blackberrys, iPhones, Outlook Tasks, or Backpack virtual office.
The advantage to doing it the tech-savvy way is that you don’t have to keep re-writing unfinished tasks onto a new list (although, some people want to do it this way, as it encourages them to get things done on the first day).
I use Backpack, because I access it from anywhere, and because I like both my business partner and my assistant to have access to my list, too. (Additionally, I have the Backpack iPhone App, “Satchel” that helps me update my list in real-time from anywhere.)
Another advantage of going digital, is that you can slide tasks easily up or down your list depending on their priority that day (though an old-fashioned hardcopy list works too, because once you’re done writing your list, you can just scribble next to each individual task “A,” “B,” or “C” depending on its priority).
I encourage you to pick up the Longevity Lifestyle Kit and experience the positive results it will have on your daily life. All five items in the kit are designed to work synchronistically.
Each items serve a specific purpose, and combined they become super powerful. Enjoy the value and savings of getting all 5 items together!
The kit includes a e-Book, an e-Guide, an e-Booklet, an e-List, and an e-Workbook. The anchor of the kit is The Numinous Journey, an eBook that utilizes principles of Success Psychology and is strategically crafted to facilitate an inner process, that will help make your exciting new lifestyle habits “stick!”
- ➊ How to Create a Strategy for Living a Fascinating Post-40 Life: The Numinous Journey
- ➋ A Unique Social Experiment: 28 Best Friends
- ➌ How to Get Seriously Organized Using Checklists: The Dane Technique
- ➍ Using Your Blender to Get Lean and Strong: 5 Best Smoothie Recipes
- ➎ Ingredients Guide for Freshly Made Green Smoothies: The Shopping List
Which Task on my Checklist Should I Do First?
Now that you’re convinced of the significant benefits of keeping a current task list, and also you’ve figured out what type of organizing person you are, and you’ve crafted a list of things you’d like to accomplish. Now comes the daunting part, you must figure out how to jump into the list and get at that first task! Well, daunting as that may seem, actually, is pretty simple:
Way #1 ~ Start with Whichever Task Is the Most Revenue-Producing
This does not have to be a corporate office/spreadsheet kind of process. State-of-the-art homemakers, too, can prioritize their lists based on revenue!
For instance, if one item on your list reads “return shower curtain to Target,” well, that’s a revenue-producing task, because at the end of it you will have ten dollars more in your pocket! Or let’s say that you have a satellite-radio subscription at home, but you haven’t hooked it up yet. Well, you’re paying for it, but you’re not enjoying it, so if you either cancel the subscription or finish hooking up your speakers — either way you’re creating more value for your money, so that’s “revenue-producing.”
Way #2 ~ Do the Task that Has Been on your List the Longest.
Come on, you know that task I’m talking about: the one that’s been lingering on your list for ages and is now all covered in dust! Sometimes it feels energizing just to knock that sucker out and get it done… finally!
Way #3 ~ Do the Task that You Least Want to Do!
There’s always that one task that makes you go, “bleh.” It can be very empowering just to finish that task so that it no longer haunts you and drains your emotional energy. You’ll be left with an exhilarating sense of accomplishment!
Okay, so are you ready to give task lists another try?
Let me know how it goes, in the comments section below!
Having a list definitely helps with clarity. Without a to do list my plants would be dead.
Hah! Yes, Sean, without checklists: important items are routinely forgotten. Many don’t realize that being disorganized is expensive.
Thanks, Dane! Getting it all down on paper always helps. And I also took your advice on how to prioritize tasks, which REALLY helped. Once I decided which tasks had to be done sooner, I was able to complete them one after the other, without wasting time on deciding which to do next, and without wasting time on tasks that weren’t urgent.
I still have a pretty full list, but I feel more in control of it, now.
I don’t even want to imagine what it’s like to have 150 items on my list. But I’d like to think that with your help I’d be just fine.
Thanks, again.
Prioritization can be a constant challenge for everyone these days — the more creative and interesting you are as a person, the more there is to potentially distract you!
The big, grounding question then becomes “out of all of this stuff on my plate today, which is most important to accomplish and will reap the biggest returns?”
{ twitter = @danenow }
I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed by my to-do list, lately! It has grown substantially in the past week, and it’s all personal — so work is getting in the way of my checking things off the list. I can’t stop thinking about it, either. It feels like this giant weight that won’t let me breathe until it’s all done. HELP!
@Liz The most important thing is to capture it all.
Once you think of a task you need to do, get it down on paper (or digitally), and once it’s captured, you don’t have to hold it in your brain anymore. It’s not uncommon for busy people to have up to 150 items on their task list. It’s okay. Let the list grow! When you’re ready to hit it, you’ll hit it. (My list hasn’t been to “zero” in years. And that’s fine by me.)
Thanks for this great post Dane!!! I am most productive when I base my actions on a prioritized list. Although I must admit that tasks that I perceive as difficult seem to languish and sometimes cause anxiety. It is true that there is tremendous satisfaction and sense of peace when everything is completed. I really appreciate your advice.
Good advice Dane. I really enjoy looking at a “to-do-list” with everything crossed out, and get an equal degree of pleasure from starting my next one!
Joel, you make an excellent point. Many of us are tempted to see our lists with dread and negativity, when in fact: using to-do lists can be a lot of fun and can provide us with a strong, regular sense of satisfaction and accomplishment!