How to Create an Effective to Do List

Think about all the things you need to get done today. Now thing about all the things you'd like to accomplish today. Now think about all the things you've been meaning to do but haven't gotten around to. Now think about what you were supposed to do last week but just never got around to. That's probably a lot of things to do. How are you going to get it all done? You've already got stuff that absolutely must be done right now. How are you going to get all the should haves, would like to, and would be nice tos done? Sadly, more people are encouraged to budget their money and almost nobody is taught how to budget their time. Here's a quick guide on how you can make a to-do list that will fit your life and make you a more effective task completer and your days more productive.

1) List it all.
Write down absolutely every to-do you can think of. Write down absolutely everything that needs to be done or you would like to get done. You're not going to finish it all in one day so don't worry if your list looks horrendously long. This list should include personal goals that you would like to accomplish. Your personal goals should always be on your to-do list. Eventually as you start accomplishing and finishing things, this list will get shorter and shorter. Of course, you'll also be adding to this list as things come up that need to be done, but I'll show you how to handle that without any major disruptions in your life.

2) Due dates.
Create due-date categories for your to-do items. These categories should be something like, 'immediate', 'short-term', and 'long term'. Items in the immediate category should be items that are the most urgent or necessary things that you do everyday (like picking the kids up from school). Keep in mind that your immediate category items will probably change daily. Short-term items should be activities that can wait for a little while, but not too long. Short-term items should include items that can wait for a week to two or three weeks. Long-term items are things that you can put off for a while, a month or more. Be sure to constantly be looking at your categories and put a date on when something in the long-term becomes a short-term item. The same applies for when short-term items become immediate items. Be sure to categorize your personal goals as well. Just be careful that your goals don't go into "long-term" and stay there. You need to make time to achieve your goals, they should eventually be moved into short-term and then immediate as well. Keep in mind that the time limits for immediate, short-term, and long-term are suggestions. Your categories should fit your life. A short-term category for you might more appropriately encompass three to six months and long-term is anything longer than six-months. Make it fit your lifestyle.

3) Running activities.
These are activities that you can do while accomplishing other goals (like putting in a load of laundry, it runs while you shuttle the kids around) or activities that require consistent effort over an extended period of time (like losing weight, writing a book, staying organized, or managing your finances). These activities should always go in the immediate or short-term category, never in the long-term category. These are items that you need to make time to do, even if it's just once a week. This will keep you caught up and keep you from feeling overwhelmed. At the same time, you'll be making time for your personal goals. Running activities like laundry, staying organized, and managing your finances should go on your immediate list. These things need to be done continuously. Running activities like writing a book and losing weight should go in your short-term and long-term categories. As you'll see, your weekly schedule will include some of your short-term activities so you should be working on these activities at least once a week. You've also put due dates on when your short-term activities become immediate activities so this should help you maintain these running activities as well.

4) Scheduling.
After you've compiled your list of to-do items and arranged them into categories, you'll need to schedule them into your week and into your days. Start with a general schedule for the week. This list encompass all of your short-term items and maybe a couple items from your long term list. Don't feel like you have to put all the daily minutaie (like making lunch) on your weekly list. Next, make a to-do list for your day tomorrow. I recommend doing this right before bed so you can go to sleep with an easy mind knowing you've got a plan for tomorrow and you don't need to worry about it tonight. I suggest typing your to-do list up in a word processing program with easy to read numbering. This makes your list appear very neat and organized and boosts the feeling that you'll be able to accomplish them. In the morning re-evaluate your list and see if anything needs to be altered. Arrange your to-do list items in the order that you want to accomplish them. Your immediate items should come first, followed by your short-term items, and finally your long-term items. I suggest scheduling your time into fifteen minute increments. Give yourself more than enough time for each activity. That way you'll finish your activities early and you'll have some free time and a feeling of accomplishment. It also puts in some wiggle room if an activity takes longer than you anticipated.

When you make your list you can choose to print it out or you can leave it on your computer. If you are always on the go, it might make sense to print it out. On the other hand, if you work out of your home, or have constant access to a PDA keeping in the word processor might not be a problem. As you accomplish tasks mark them out with a highlighter. Most people scratch out their completed to-do items, but here is why you should highlight instead of scratching out. When you scratch out an item, it's easier to forget what you've accomplished when all you can see is what you haven't done yet. When you highlight, it's still very obvious what you need to do, but you can see much more easily what you have already accomplished. Don't forget to mark off items you complete from your weekly to-do list.

When you do your scheduling, be sure to factor in meal times and some personal time. That personal time could be in the morning while you eat your breakfast and read the morning paper or it could be a mid-afternoon break to get your second wind. Just be sure to allot some time for you. This will help you keep going the rest of the day.

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That's a lot of information to take in. Here's an example of what a weekly and a daily schedule might look like. Keep in mind that your schedule and the activities on it may be vastly different from what is given here. The example I'm going to give is that of a stay-at-home mom or dad who also runs a business out of their home. This example is for form only. You should tailor your schedule to fit your daily content.

Weekly:
1) Buy groceries.
2) Balance business ledger.
3) Schedule next months' business meeting.
4) Clean house.
5) Lose weight.
6) Write book.
7) Find a new marketing technique.
8) Go to Sammy's baseball game.
9) Finish PTA duties.
10) Take dog to vet.

Daily:
1) Wake-up 5:30 am
2) Go running 5:30 - 6:00 am
3) Shower and get ready 6:00- 6:30 am
4) Wake up kids and get ready for school 6:30 - 7:30 am
5) Pack lunches. 7:00 am
6) Leave for school. 7:30 am
7) Return from dropping kids off. 8:30 am
8) Put in a load of laundry. 8:45 am
9) Breakfast. 9:00- 10:30 am
10) Tidy living room and office. 10:30 - 11:00 am
11) Balance June and July in ledger. 11:00 - 12:30 pm
12) Lunch. 12:30 - 1:00 pm
13) Switch out laundry. 1:00 pm
14) Work. 1:15 - 3:30 pm
15) Run errands (groceries, dry cleaning, post office) 3:30 - 5:00 pm
16) Pick up kids from daycare. 5:15 pm
17) Cook dinner. 6:30 pm
18) Help kids with homework. 8:00 - 9:00 pm
19) Miscellaneous tasks. 9:00 - 10:30 pm
20) Bedtime. 10:30 pm

Now, this schedule may not fit you at all, but you can see the from. All the hours are portioned out with plenty of time for each task. The daily list for this person didn't include all of their weekly tasks, but they still have six more days. Modify your to-do list and schedule to fit your needs and lifestyle. With these tools, you are on your way to being a productive person and making your days slightly less chaotic.