Simplify your To-Do list with sticky notes.

This is it, your New Year’s resolutions’ best friend — How to simplify your To-Do list with sticky notes.

I’ve finally figured out a system for keeping myself in lists that help me get things done, rather than a system that exists for its own sake. Do you know what I mean? Those planners that require their own block of time to manage? As if managing my life isn’t hard enough, I have to manage the planner as well?

 

My tree may not last too much longer. It smells amazing, though! I feel like the whole question of how long to keep the tree around answers itself as its poor branches droop ever lower and its needles start to make me insane as they swoosh to the floor every time I come near.

And just like that, our minds turn to clearing out and getting organized.

Every morning, this is the conversation between me and the Chief:

Him: “So, hon, whatcha doin today?”

Me: “Oh, getting organized…”

Sound familiar?

Let’s talk lists, which are our friends.

I’m a huge fan of cut-up scrap paper. There’s nothing like a piece of paper that costs you nothing — that you are re-purposing and recycling — that you are being virtuous by using! I like to grab a pen and a scrap of paper and make a list. For years, that’s how I did my to-dos. Just jotted them down.

 

There’s nothing that says “you are so thrifty” like finding a use for a piece of paper that’s so old it has a FAX number on it, am I right??

{I pause this post to say: that the only effective way to make your grocery list is in order of the aisles. You are going to forget things, even written down things. Make it less likely to forget — although of course not impossible — by using the layout of the store, rather than the order the things occurred to you, in your list. If necessary, re-write the list, which you can do because it’s just scrap paper.}

Nowadays I might take a picture of my list to have it on my phone. But I’ve not yet found a way to make the actual list, organized by aisle, that beats just writing it down on a piece of paper!

 

However, for your To-Do list, I’ve found a way that’s been working for me for a while now, and solves the “where the heck are my little scraps of paper” issue. It might help you, because it makes use of one of the most important principles of time management, which is this:

Only have 3 to 5 things on your To-Do list.

I read an interesting article (don’t know where, sorry) that said that the most effective corporate executive types have only five things on their To-Do list. But as a mother, I know that there are already many, many things which we haven’t chosen that are already on the list before we even get started, such as laundry, making meals, changing diapers, tidying up… and we also have to have planners for homeschooling and menus. And then we get to the To-Dos…

So I say 3 things.

Three things on your To-Do list each day.

The big question becomes, how to figure out what those three things are?

And the answer is also simple. You need a little chunk of time to do it, and I recommend doing it in whatever you consider your prayer time. This is because what we do with our time is very much a spiritual issue. So it’s actually a good use of prayer to sit in God’s presence and discuss all those things that weigh us down.

Go ahead and talk it over with Him, pen and paper in hand. Make a list of 10 or 25 or 50 or however many things you think need to be done. It’s the Master List. It should have All The Things. Getting photos organized, cleaning out closets, calling the insurance company, figuring out a bill-pay system, planning your school year — all the calls, all the projects, all the commitments.

Now, looking at all those things, which are the top three that you could do today?** Maybe the insurance company simply must be called today. Okay, that’s #1. Maybe you have to go to the store or everyone will starve. And maybe there is a pile of boxes blocking the door that have to be taken out to the garage.

There you go. Three things… in addition, of course, to all your other duties, which just get done whether they are written down or not, so unless they are out of the ordinary (say, there are four laundry baskets that must be dealt with or you can’t do your normal laundry), just don’t write them down.

Now what I’ve discovered is that using sticky notes really helps and represents a significant (although considerably less thrifty***) improvement over the scrap-paper method. The improvement consists in giving you a visual, which I find important, and also in allowing you to discard that which you have completed, which I find gratifying.

I had something like this mind and tried to find a method already worked out. I found this one, and I encourage you to read up on how she implements the sticky-note method. I refined it a little for my purposes.

First, it seems really important to me that your notes go onto durable pages. I was picturing a small spiral-bound photo album, the pages of which are practically laminated. You don’t want too many pages, though, because that’s too much pressure to multiply the tasks! We have enough tasks as it is. But I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

The pages should at least be cardstock, to be sturdy enough to take a lot of sticking and unsticking of notes. And that’s hard to find. I had this notebook that Natasha had given me. It’s from Minted, very cute. The pages are rather thicker than normal notebook paper, and it’s a good size.

 

In theory you could have a “notebook” that consisted of two covers — just a folder, really. You would open it up and there would be your To-Dos. I guess you’d need one more page to stow your unused sticky notes on. But…

… I realized I wanted tabs.

Fortunately, you can get sticky tabs. The main thing is that the ability to change this system around — its flexibility — is very appealing to me. I don’t like my organization to be too dedicated. I like to be able to feel that I’m not a slave to it, but rather that it’s serving me. I guess I have commitment anxiety when it comes to organization. (The sticky aspect has already worked out when I realized I hated having the tabs on top and needed to move them to the side. Phew.)

I quickly realized that I might have three or however many things to do today, but there are going to be a lot of other things that need to stay near the top of the list. And that’s my “tomorrow” tab. I like to see the queue, you know?

Your Master List — that list of the overwhelming bazillion things you have to do (but suspect you’ll never get to) — can go in the back pages. And you can have other, less pressing notes under their own tabs.

 

Mine has been in use, so forgive the somewhat shabby nature of it. This is the page, above, that I open to every morning. It never changes — only the stickies on it change. (The inside cover is printed with that little picture of Pippo. Cute.)

On the left are prayers, special intentions, for people (you are on it, dear reader! Pray for me too!).****

On the right are the To-Dos — JUST FOR TODAY. Some days I need a sort of schedule and almost hourly breakdown, and that’s when the longer sticky note comes in handy. But usually it’s one task (or set of tasks, as I like to make the most of my notes) per note. I can move the notes around, of course, so that I have a visual of which to do first.

When it’s done, that note gets thrown away. (If I need an archive, there’s that Master List and I can cross it out there. But most tasks are not memorable! “Go to the Bank” is not something I need to remember that I did, years from now!)

And there’s that little stash of the notes inside the back cover, replenished once in a while when needed.

This is my “tomorrow” page, which is a loose conglomeration of vague things that need to be done, eventually; or even just thought about.

I also have a page for my blog ideas, my crafting hopes and dreams, and so on. I have other notebooks and an index card file for other organizing of more extensive thoughts and notes, but for T0-Dos, this is the way that works the best for me.

There you have it. I’ve always wanted a To-Do system that’s flexible, portable, simple, and visual. I’ve tried many, many others. This is it for me. I still jot things down on scraps of paper (especially shopping lists), but now I move them to sticky notes when they become official To-Do items.

Tomorrow I will post about a way to make yourself a little notebook with cardstock that would be just right for this method, just because I’ve had my eye out, and can’t find the kind of notebook I think really works. The pages have to be fewer than your regular notebook (really, you would only need about 8 pages, max), and they have to be stiff. Such a thing is easy to make, though. See you then!

{Behind all of this is the essential series about Getting Control of Suppers and Laundry — posts found in the menu bars up above), which I’ve written about extensively and which all started with this: Can Your New Year’s Resolution Take the Reality Test? Or, My Secret to Straightening Out Your Life}

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*If you can swing it, get a paper cutter. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of room — I hang mine up on a nail in my craft closet. A paper cutter is awesome and makes paper crafting so much more fun and possible.

**If you have a new baby and/or a houseful of sick children, know that you must have a To-Do list but it’s all about what’s on the list. If you can throw away three notes that say “Wash face brush teeth,” “Change diapers,” and “defrost chicken broth” then that’s a good day’s work.

***The expense was holding me back. Post-Its are ridiculously pricey (also I’m not a fan of the colors). But knockoffs are fine and once you get started, keep your eye out for the ones put on clearance in various places. Soon you will have a stash of them. I decided it was worth it to use what turns out to be at most about three a day (usually I put like items together on a note) for me to have a sense of peace about how my day was going. I figure you can buy a lot of marked-down sticky notes for one expensive planner! It’s all very ironic because up until literally last year I really detested sticky notes and couldn’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t just cut up some scrap paper. But this is a valid use for them, I must say!

****The prayers are right there because I bring this notebook to my quiet prayer every morning. Putting my day before God — my actual To-Do list — for a portion of my meditation is important to me. It’s where the rubber meets the road in doing His will. Yes, even going to the grocery store is His will for me, if it’s what I need to do today. One of the most important questions we can ask each day (and each moment, really), is simply, “Am I doing what you want me to be doing now, Lord?” “Do You really want me to tear out that closet today, Lord, or is there something else on Your mind?” (Also, taking the list to prayer makes it possible to be just a wee bit less distracted, if you are the distractible type, not that I would know about that. Instead of fixating on that important thing I just remembered I have to do, trying to memorize it, I can jot it down and go back to prayer.)

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