Level Up Your Use of TODO Lists

Last updated on October 6, 2020

I make lists to free my brain. Productivity coach Mark Struczewski talks about running todo lists and using them so you don’t have to waste time figuring out what to do next; simply check your list.

Types of Lists

The most common types of lists that I make are todo lists and shopping lists, but you can make lists on all types of topics. This morning, as part of my guided meditation practice, the prompt was to list the character traits that create challenges in my relation. The idea was then to consider what actions I could take to overcome challenges.

I find lists useful for naming and noticing things. Some lists that you can create are:

• todo
• shopping
• gratitude
• bucket
• dream holiday
• obstacles
• goals
• favorite movies, books, etc

When you create a list, you move ideas from your brain into a space where you can examine the items and consider your actions. The actions we take will either help us add items or remove items from our lists.

The Problem with Todo Lists

The type of lists that are most often discussed in reference to productivity is todo lists. The problem with todo lists is that they may provide us with too many choices. According to Harvard Business Review, any more than seven choices creates too much overwhelm for us. There is also the problem of insufficient context which makes it difficult for us to prioritize the items in our list. We may end up doing the quickest tasks on the lists, or the ones we like best. Todo lists don’t protect us from missing deadlines or have any built-in ways to combat procrastination. There is another step needed, and that is to actually schedule items on the list.

At work, I use Asana to manage my task list. What works well for me is to set deadlines by which I want to do a particular task. That way, if I have a few minutes of time, I can look at what’s coming due in the next week to see where to focus my time. It works even better for me if I add the task to my calendar at a particular time.

From Todo List to Calendar Schedule

Brook Castillo explains how we can use todo lists to get stuff done in episode 261 of her podcast; just having a todo list is not enough for productivity. She suggests that we throw any ongoing todo lists that we have and go through the following sequence:

1. create a complete brain dump of everything that can be on the todo list, everything stored in your brain that you want to do or can do
2. list the obstacles to completing each item on the list
3. cross off the things that you will not do (be honest and realistic rather than succumbing to social pressure)
4. prioritize the list (by importance)
5. add items from list to calendar
6. get rid of the todo list
7. repeat the cycle whenever needed

The challenging part of this exercise is to follow through on the tasks in the calendar. Resisting instant gratification, not putting off the things that we planned ahead, that is the route for consistent progress, that is how change happens.