How to Make the Ultimate To Do List

1. Without any organization jot down the items crowding your to-do list. A monthly to-do list should probably have between 20-30 items, a weekly to do list should have 10-15 items and a daily to do list between five and seven. I once read a book called The Seven Habits of HIghly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. He spoke about identifying the “big rocks” in our life, things that require lots of attention and work, like a term paper, or things that we cannot miss like a wedding. Take time to identify the big rocks on your list. A monthly to do list could probably have five, a weekly could have have one or two and a daily to do list might have one or it might not have any. 

I should say this now: everything in this blog post is based off of things I learned from time management books but it is purely a suggestion. I don’t like to brag but I am very good at time management. I never missed a deadline at school and I got everything I wanted done at the same time. Senior year of high school I was the lead in the school play. I also played soccer, was the editor for the school paper, and was the judging captain for the debate team while I took a maximum amount of classes including APs. If I didn’t write everything down, I’d be totally screwed. 

2. The first thing you will do with your list is evaluate the urgency of each item. I define urgency as something that cannot wait. A child needs to be taken to the doctor, a flat tire or a last minute meeting. Anything that was unplanned likely is urgent but not always. A school assignment can become urgent if it was not handled earlier (more about procrastination  later). Rate the item’s urgency out of 10. Pay extra attention to anything that is over 7. 

3. The next thing you will do is evaluate the importance of each item. Now, an item can be urgent and important and alot of times it is (ex.sick child). Important items are where we see our big rocks. Alot of time important items don’t have to be urgent- not if we plan well. We can break down the biggest items and put the smaller components on the the list where we can tackle them. 

4. I will encourage you to add the “urgency” and the “important” categories. The items with the highest numbers s hould be the ones you do first. If you are going to do something and meet with inner resistance ask yourself why. Do you dislike doing it? Do you not know how to do it? Are you scared to do it? If you find yourself procrastinating a lot of things in your life you may have to change something in your life like the career you are pursuing or a class your taking but not enjoying.

5. After your task is complete write a letter grade next to it. This letter represents the return you got from the task and also the return you got off the task. If your seeing a low letter grade reappear for the same type of item, that might be something you should give some thought to. Is it unavoidable or something you can delegate? Something like this can really drain you.

A word on procrastination: I think most of us have something we could procrastinate given the chance. I usually don’t but there have been times where I shove things off until as late as possible. My only advice is to figure out why you are procrastinating. If it’s something deeply unpleasant (a dentist visit) maybe you can reward yourself after. Pairing an unpleasant task with a pleasant task  is good incentive.

Let me know what you think of my to do list. Of course in a pinch you can always scribble notes on the back of a grocery list. But it’s nice to have options.