To-Do List Formula: A Stress-Free Guide To Creating To-Do Lists That Work!

by Damon Zahariades

First, your list will grow too long.

Second, you’ll have too many options.

Third, your list will have too much variability. Three-minute tasks will be listed next to three-hour tasks.

It’s worth pointing out that doing a brain dump is an important step toward creating an effective to-do list.

You might feel productive as you complete tasks and cross them off your list. But in reality, you’ll be inclined to choose easy, low-priority tasks that require minimal time to complete and leave the high-value items unaddressed.

An individual may have a vague sense regarding the latest date by which a particular task must be completed, but he or she neglects to assign a formal due date to it.

Deadlines are important because they prompt us to take action.

Assuming our deadlines are realistic and take into account the comparative priorities of our to-do items, they increase our productivity. We not only get more things d...

The tasks’ starting dates will prompt you to work on them early enough to meet their respective deadlines.

Your master list is a rolling repository of every task you think of. It’s where you record every item, regardless of its priority, deadline, the time required to complete it, and the project with which it’s associated.

Each evening, you would review your master list. You’d look for tasks due in the near future or those that need to be addressed in order to move other tasks forward. Once you identify these to-do items, you’d choose several and transfer them to the following day’s daily list, assuming your schedule allows adequate time to address them.

It limits the number of tasks on your daily to-do list. There are five. No more. No less.

The big ones can be finished in under two hours while the small ones should take less than 30 minutes. (Tasks that take longer than two hours to complete can usually be broken down into smaller tasks.)

This feature of the “3+2” strategy makes it compatible with popular time management strategies like the Pomodoro Technique and timeboxing.

minimizes task switching.

fewer tasks to focus on, you’ll be less inclined to switch back and forth between them.

This reduces switching costs, the loss in productivity that results from jumping between unrelated tasks.

you choose one big task, three medium-sized tasks, and five small tasks to complete during the day.

Not only does it allow you to choose more items to get done each day (nine vs. five), but it also presents three categories rather than just two.

you’re left with multiple lists, one per project.

Task-level context is inherent in this system as your lists are organized according to project.

gives you a bird’s-eye view of your multiple projects in progress.

MIT is an acronym. It stands for “most important task.” It’s the highest-priority item on your to-do list. It’s the one thing you must complete during the course of a given day.

you select three high-priority tasks to focus on during your day. Whatever else happens, you must get these three items done.

Grab a cork board and a stack of Post-It notes. Make three columns on your board. Title the left column “To Do.” Title the middle column “Doing.” Title the right column “Done.”

It also makes it easy to prioritize items according to their respective due dates.

allows you to track the progress of individual tasks.

you can use different colored Post-It notes to represent varying levels of priority.

Tasks are assigned to the quadrants according to their respective priorities. Those placed in the first quadrant should be addressed immediately. Those in the second quadrant are less dire, but should be scheduled to ensure they’re addressed at some point in the near future. Tasks in the third quadrant can be delegated to others while tasks in the fourth quadrant can be abandoned.

it forces you to add context to each task.

Part of GTD involves creating a “next actions” list and a “someday/maybe” list.

GTD advises performing a weekly review.

focuses more on processing the ideas in your head than actually getting them done.

not enough attention is given to how each item captured on the “brain dump” list relates to your goals.

it’s easy to get overwhelmed while using GTD.

Getting Things Done is popular as a strategy for organizing tasks and creating to-do lists. There’s no doubt about that. But the more you research it, the more you’ll find that many people have tried and abandoned it.

use a “current task” list to decide how to allocate your time and attention each day.

Second, use a “future task” list to keep track of all the items that will need your attention at some point.

Many people work from a single, massive to-do list that grows by the day as new items are added to it. This practice can be discouraging because there’s no end in sight.

Its limited scope - remember, it only carries items that are to be completed that day - reduces stress and removes the sense of overwhelm.

“next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality toward completion.”

You’ll find that completing each day’s to-do list will motivate and inspire you.

We take action to effect specific outcomes. Otherwise, why would we spend time and effort doing things that prevent us from pursuing activities we find more enjoyable

The simplest way to get through your daily to-do list is to assign a “why” to each item found on it.

You’ll find that when you associate tasks with specific outcomes, you’ll feel more compelled to get them done.

This is the reason many to-do “items” remain unfinished at the end of the day. They’re technically projects. They’re too large in scope and can seem overwhelming, which causes us to procrastinate.

Breaking projects down into smaller tasks makes them seem more doable. It also allows you to focus your limited time and attention on tasks according to their priority and value.

Make sure your to-do lists are limited to actionable tasks, not projects. If an item requires more than one action, it is a project that can - and should - be broken down.

The date doesn’t have to be written in stone. It can change as the priority and urgency of the task to which it’s attached changes.

First, make sure each deadline is realistic.