How do you divide your to-do lists?
October 7, 2021 4:02 PM Subscribe
My planner has each day divided into three sections. Obviously you can use them for morning, noon, and night, but that doesn't always make sense for my day. What are some other ways you divide your lists?
Some criteria off the top of my head:
posted by RichardP at 4:13 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
- Location: tasks to do at home, tasks to do while at work, tasks to do while commuting
- Effort: tiny tasks to slip into idle moments, tasks that take less than a hour, tasks that will require a big chunk of time
- Time constraint: tasks that can be done anytime, tasks that have a deadline, tasks that have a start time
- Priority: must do, would like to do, could do
posted by RichardP at 4:13 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
I divide my digital planner into “must do today” “make progress on” (bigger projects) and “keep in mind” (stuff that I want to keep on my radar, would be good to do today but will survive another day, or stuff I know I won’t be doing today but will be doing in the next few days and want to make sure it doesn’t get lost).
posted by brook horse at 4:17 PM on October 7, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by brook horse at 4:17 PM on October 7, 2021 [4 favorites]
Work/Personal/Family or Social
posted by AnneShirley at 4:26 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by AnneShirley at 4:26 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
I often also do work/personal/meal planning or food consumed & calories
posted by AnneShirley at 4:27 PM on October 7, 2021
posted by AnneShirley at 4:27 PM on October 7, 2021
Events / to-dos / other notes
posted by momus_window at 4:37 PM on October 7, 2021
posted by momus_window at 4:37 PM on October 7, 2021
TODAY -- TOMORROW -- LATER
posted by blnkfrnk at 5:27 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by blnkfrnk at 5:27 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
I do “to do”, “scheduled” (ie meetings, etc) and “watching”. Watching has projects or things that don’t have a direct action linked.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 6:24 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Valancy Rachel at 6:24 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
Errands, crafts and reminders :)
Errands (or appointments) is pretty obvious as a category. Anything with a timestamp goes here!
Crafts because I always have multiple crafts on the go and frequently forget about the current ones when something shiny comes along. I've been working on a crochet cat as a gift for *forever*, but now its in front of my face every day so I can't forget about it (and I'm really making progress!).
Reminders like 'replace my toothbrush' and 'organise car service'; stuff that should be remembered but doesn't have to be done on that specific day.
posted by eloeth-starr at 7:21 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
Errands (or appointments) is pretty obvious as a category. Anything with a timestamp goes here!
Crafts because I always have multiple crafts on the go and frequently forget about the current ones when something shiny comes along. I've been working on a crochet cat as a gift for *forever*, but now its in front of my face every day so I can't forget about it (and I'm really making progress!).
Reminders like 'replace my toothbrush' and 'organise car service'; stuff that should be remembered but doesn't have to be done on that specific day.
posted by eloeth-starr at 7:21 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
I mostly only make a to-do list as a one-time checklist, like what do I need to get done before my vacation, etc. The exception is my 'don't wanna' list, where I put the tasks I hate to do, or catch myself making excuses to avoid.
Then when I get stuck on another task, or someone has pissed me off, I grab something from that list and get it done. It's amazing how much I can do a hated task out of spite.
posted by buildmyworld at 7:34 PM on October 7, 2021
Then when I get stuck on another task, or someone has pissed me off, I grab something from that list and get it done. It's amazing how much I can do a hated task out of spite.
posted by buildmyworld at 7:34 PM on October 7, 2021
For M-F, I do work tasks / meetings & appointments (can be work or personal) / home tasks (including TV viewing). On the weekend I do either morning / afternoon / evening or use one of the three boxes as a general to-do list.
posted by timestep at 8:09 PM on October 7, 2021
posted by timestep at 8:09 PM on October 7, 2021
in-house-activity/out-of-house-activity/communication-required-activity
posted by jessamyn at 8:18 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn at 8:18 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
I often need to push things off my to-do list when something unexpected comes up or I run out of energy, so I've found it helpful to divide my list into three sections:
1. MUST do today
2. OK to push off to tomorrow or the next day or the next
3. Things that don't really have a due date in the near future, but I can do if I have extra time or I need to switch focus to something else for awhile (similar to what some organizing systems call a "menu")
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:31 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
1. MUST do today
2. OK to push off to tomorrow or the next day or the next
3. Things that don't really have a due date in the near future, but I can do if I have extra time or I need to switch focus to something else for awhile (similar to what some organizing systems call a "menu")
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:31 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think of tasks as:
1. Can be done during the work week (laundry, finances)
2. Do during the weekend, outside (weeding, painting, mowing)
3. Do during the weekend, inside (food prep, grocery shop)
posted by mezzanayne at 8:44 PM on October 7, 2021
1. Can be done during the work week (laundry, finances)
2. Do during the weekend, outside (weeding, painting, mowing)
3. Do during the weekend, inside (food prep, grocery shop)
posted by mezzanayne at 8:44 PM on October 7, 2021
Because part of my work as a professional organizer involves coaching clients on productivity and time management, my philosophy tends to be to pick the approach that best works for you after trying it for two weeks.
Personally, my tasks are divided as:
* Things that will literally propel my business (client sessions, active marketing tasks like doing a TV interview or writing a blog post)
* Things that will support my business (touching base with clients, networking, doing research that will support the biz-propulsion items)
* Personal tasks (anything from a medical appointment to paying my mom's bills to dealing with an annoying customer service issue that doesn't fall in the business categories)
FWIW, the personal tasks are divided into things I'll do here (home/home office) and things I'll go elsewhere to do.
For my clients, we've come up with a wide variety of categories that reflect how they see their lives. These have included:
* cognitive/physical/spiritual
* Eisenhower Matrix stuff (urgent and important, urgent but not super-important, important but not super-urgent)
* time specific (appointments)/ongoing (or daily bites)/intermittent action toward future goal
* high value (high ROI) tasks, medium value tasks, low-value tasks that can't be outsourced but can't be paired with rewards (either simultaneously, like listening to a podcast, or after completion)
* Tasks for business (whether self-employed or for a business), tasks for self, tasks for specific others (friends/family), tasks for generalized others (community/volunteer)
* Do because you have to (usually work-related, financial), do because you want to, do because you want to be seen as the kind of person who does & wants to do it
However, rather than coming up with specific categories, I'd like to suggest you do something else. With each task on your brain-dump massive list, describe it out loud. You're going to find that you innately have a way to describe certain types of tasks (grownup stuff, fun stuff; thinking, learning, doing). As you do each task, write down the description. At the end of a day or week, look at the categories you came up with and I bet you'll see a pattern that fits your style.
Don't feel like you have to use clear, balanced concepts. Let your category names speak to your inner child, inner rebel, or inner praise-seeker. Category names that resonate with you are likely to lead to higher productivity.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 11:10 PM on October 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
Personally, my tasks are divided as:
* Things that will literally propel my business (client sessions, active marketing tasks like doing a TV interview or writing a blog post)
* Things that will support my business (touching base with clients, networking, doing research that will support the biz-propulsion items)
* Personal tasks (anything from a medical appointment to paying my mom's bills to dealing with an annoying customer service issue that doesn't fall in the business categories)
FWIW, the personal tasks are divided into things I'll do here (home/home office) and things I'll go elsewhere to do.
For my clients, we've come up with a wide variety of categories that reflect how they see their lives. These have included:
* cognitive/physical/spiritual
* Eisenhower Matrix stuff (urgent and important, urgent but not super-important, important but not super-urgent)
* time specific (appointments)/ongoing (or daily bites)/intermittent action toward future goal
* high value (high ROI) tasks, medium value tasks, low-value tasks that can't be outsourced but can't be paired with rewards (either simultaneously, like listening to a podcast, or after completion)
* Tasks for business (whether self-employed or for a business), tasks for self, tasks for specific others (friends/family), tasks for generalized others (community/volunteer)
* Do because you have to (usually work-related, financial), do because you want to, do because you want to be seen as the kind of person who does & wants to do it
However, rather than coming up with specific categories, I'd like to suggest you do something else. With each task on your brain-dump massive list, describe it out loud. You're going to find that you innately have a way to describe certain types of tasks (grownup stuff, fun stuff; thinking, learning, doing). As you do each task, write down the description. At the end of a day or week, look at the categories you came up with and I bet you'll see a pattern that fits your style.
Don't feel like you have to use clear, balanced concepts. Let your category names speak to your inner child, inner rebel, or inner praise-seeker. Category names that resonate with you are likely to lead to higher productivity.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 11:10 PM on October 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
Because of the current setup of my life, I have it by location: remote/in-person/errands. It really depends on your life.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:53 AM on October 8, 2021
posted by epanalepsis at 5:53 AM on October 8, 2021
Urgent and Important
Important but not Urgent
Not Urgent and Not Important
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:57 AM on October 8, 2021
Important but not Urgent
Not Urgent and Not Important
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:57 AM on October 8, 2021
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posted by bleep at 4:04 PM on October 7, 2021 [3 favorites]