To Do Lists.

[Billiardsguy2006]

Hi there,

I'm thinking of using some sort of "To Do" list each day to feel more clear-headed and make better use of my time.

Does a To-Do list actually work? Is it worth the effort of spending 5 minutes each day planning out the day?

I'm only beginning to learn about time management so I am not very experienced in this area.

[stayfly]

Originally Posted by Billiardsguy2006

Hi there,

I'm thinking of using some sort of "To Do" list each day to feel more clear-headed and make better use of my time.

Does a To-Do list actually work? Is it worth the effort of spending 5 minutes each day planning out the day?

I'm only beginning to learn about time management so I am not very experienced in this area.

yes, they definitely can and do work

check out a book called "Do It Tomorrow" by Mark Forster for some of the best information on using to-do lists effectively

[SimonaRich]

It works wonders because by spending some time each day to plan next day you are programming your subconscious mind of what work needs to be accomplished tomorrow.

This way you will accomplish tasks easier because they will be solved on a subconscious level.

[Billiardsguy2006]

Today is my first day experimenting with to-do lists. Because I failed to write one in the morning, I will write one right now. I consider it a mini-To Do List. I will rank it according to priorities. Importance is ranked based on A, B, and C.

To Do List
__________
-Apply to 20 jobs (A)
-Print out interview pages and read entire sheet (A)
-Buy a book (C)
-Walk for 25 minutes (A)
-Resistance Train for 15 minutes (A)
-Pay car ticket (A)
-Read the first chapter of the book (C)
-Read 30 minutes of Steve Pavlina's blog (C)
_________

[thaiduytrinh]

Originally Posted by Billiardsguy2006

Today is my first day experimenting with to-do lists. Because I failed to write one in the morning, I will write one right now. I consider it a mini-To Do List. I will rank it according to priorities. Importance is ranked based on A, B, and C.

To Do List
__________
-Apply to 20 jobs (A)
-Print out interview pages and read entire sheet (A)
-Buy a book (C)
-Walk for 25 minutes (A)
-Resistance Train for 15 minutes (A)
-Pay car ticket (A)
-Read the first chapter of the book (C)
-Read 30 minutes of Steve Pavlina's blog (C)
_________

To-do list definitely works. The fact that you can cross out one in the list and say to yourself "Wow, I get one more thing done!" will motivate you to work harder on the rest in the list. It also facilitates you to decide what to do given a certain time frame. It will not be efficient to start doing an 1-hour task when you have only 30 mins available. You will need to switch back to complete the task later on and to get to where you were last time takes a lot of time.

Long to-do list works even better as you have more choices. Take note that long to-do list might be demoralizing as it appears to be overwhelming. In this case. you have to be a little bit careful on what to put on your to-do list. One technique suggested in Randy Pausch’s Time Management lecture is to put them in a 2x2 table, the two dimension of which measures the level of urgency and importance. Those tasks to the left is more urgent while those to the top is more important. Obviously, the tasks on the top left (urgent and important) should be completed first while those on the bottom right (non-urgent and unimportant) shouldn't be considered at all. The tricky part comes in when choosing from the other two cells. Most people choose the bottom left ones as they appears to need immediate actions because of their urgency. It is, however, not true. Why do you do them at all when they are not important? By doing those on the top right (non-urgent but important), you would make best use of your time to do something important to your life. Should you start them early enough, you could prevent them from going into the top left cell (urgent and important), thus reducing your stress level. In ideal cases, you would expect to see most of the tasks appearing on the top right

Hope it helps.

[Eric Roosevelt]

I hate to be repetitive, because I've mentioned this in serveral threads now, but you might want to try mindmaps. Mindmapping is really the most powerful technique to organize your thoughts, precisely because the mindmapping format mimics thoughts. To-do lists are good for outlining your basic goals, while mindmaps are much better for delving into the technical and emotional aspects.