Using checklists effectively
can improve your life
and create more time for play!
Anybody who’s great at being organized and getting a lot done (in comparatively less time than other people), probably uses checklists of some kind, as part of their own personal productivity system.
If you want to become even more organized and accomplished, it will help you to accept lists as a part of your daily time management routine.
4 Ways to Stay Organized
Everybody wants to be more organized, and the temptation is to look for external solutions. But in reality, what will most help us to get super organized — and stay super organized — are internal shifts. When we change how we see our time and our work, and when we upgrade our beliefs, feelings, and thoughts about getting things done, that’s when we’re truly poised to begin improving our daily habits!
Lists are an essential component of self-efficiency. Here are four helpful ways to use to-do lists so that you can live optimally, get more done in less time, and move steadily toward your goals!
1. Give Yourself a Permanent Hall Pass
What’s with the long face? Stop beating yourself up for not being perfect, and approach your list with a lighter, more-playful energy. Stay out of the shame zone — it’s a complete waste of your mental and emotional energy!
If you decide to experiment with using lists each day, give yourself permission to blow-off the lists on any day you’re not “not feeling it.”
This sounds strange and unlikely, I know, but the fact is that you will be more likely to stick with lists if you know you have the option to take a day off from your checklists whenever you feel like it.
If you’re going to take time off, at least enjoy it! If you want to take a day off, take a day off! Which leads me to…
“Your to-do list is not only not your enemy,
it would like to be your best friend!”
2. Use a Different Lens
Start looking at your lists with rose-colored glasses. When it comes to our task lists, what most of us need even more than a new system, is a new perspective.
What I suggest is: don’t resent the list, don’t rebel against the list, don’t feel oppressed by the list — because, hey, the list isn’t saying “you are a mess; look how you ignore me,” or, “I am the boss of you.” If you your list could talk, it would instead simply say: “I am a tool designed to help you. If you need me, I’m here for you.”
Your to-do list is not only not your enemy, it would like to be your best friend!
daily checklists can help you stay organized
You can use a checklist for anything! You can have one for the personal chores you like to do every day at home, another for your daily professional tasks, one for your once-a-week tasks, and a to-do list for your one-time-only tasks. Whatever helps you to stay focused and on-track is worth trying!
3. Re-engage With Your Lists Every 48 Hours
If you can, try never to take more than two days off in a row from your lists. Keep yourself in the game, so that you don’t develop any unhelpful habits that you’ll just have to struggle again to break.
Yes, in Tip #1 (above) I advise you to take a day off whenever you feel like. Heck, take two, if you like. But try to climb back on the horse on day-three (unless you’re on vacation or recuperating), otherwise it’ll be that much harder to reconnect.
4. Trust the Process
Everyone has made a to-do list and then never looked at it again. So what? Big deal. Who cares? The process of writing the list is, in itself, clarifying.
The process of writing a list lets you dump out the worrying contents of your brain onto paper so that all the stuff doesn’t have to recirculate endlessly in your mind. Even if you never looked at the list again, it was still better to have made a list than to have never made one.
And those are my 4 tips. Are you energized? Feeling positive? Ready to take on your day — to create and achieve your goals?
What about next week? Have you taken a few minutes to plan out next week yet?
No 4: It’s better to have list and lost then never to have list at all.
Dave, hah!! it took a few times to read that before I “got it.” FUNNY!
I like the point that making a list is a clarifying process even if you never look at the list again. It really does help create a sense of having an overview of what is going on and what is on your metaphorical plate. I still have my issues with getting organized but these tips help.
I still have “to do” lists from over a year ago that don’t have everything crossed off yet… somethings are on the back, way back, burner — but it’s encouraging to see I’m still headed in the same direction as I was a year ago!
Great article, Dane! I love the idea of not seeing a list as an authority figure to rebel against but as a friend and useful tool to help.
- Lorie
Along the different lens point, I really focus on zooming OUT on the lens. My problem with “lists” is that they tend to be very task oriented involving “things” that can easily be recorded and crossed off.
One thing I’ve done (I’m ALWAYS fudging with my process just to keep things fresh and discourage my “ignoring” tendency) has been to use a MASTER list for about a month that includes projects, thinking, short/immediate term – it is dynamic and always looks differently after that month.
That way, I’m reminded to look forward and consider the “thinking” part of my job, but am organized on a daily basis to chug along.
Great post Dane ~ Happy New Year!
Kris, I respect what you’re saying, very much. I’m a detail-oriented guy — my brain is biologically wired that way — and so I am challenged to remember:
to take time out periodically to work on my business, instead of just in it.
#highaltitude
Ahhhh – Love that – working “on” vs working “in”….
I am definitely a detail person – I used to be an ag tech person – research, data, awesome spreadsheets. And zooming out does not come easily for sure. And to be honest – I’m a bit hooked on the adrenaline part of “busting it out”. But, this is my year really knowing that it’s not sustainable and many times not productive…..
Happy New Year, Dane! Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
I particularly liked your tip number two about changing the lens through which one views to-do lists. For free spirits, like myself, it’s helpful to remember that working systematically with focus through to-do lists actually creates more freedom, not less. One thing I’ve learned from you, Dane, is that multitasking is hugely overrated.
Nice tips Dane.
Your first comment of 2011.