One job list is best. Does everyone agree? It means you can focus. You don’t have multiple lists to check and coordinate. However as with so many things in this life it’s rarely as simple as that.
I use Wunderlist ( Now Microsoft To Do) to keep track of reoccurring tasks or projects that need tasks doing over a number of months. I used to then write down things that needed doing in my notebook and shape these into job lists. It was a bit haphazard. I’d put off doing something so it would appear on numerous lists. It was hard to keep track of what was outstanding. I remade lists a lot. Why actually do something when you can just spend time planning when you might do it.
So in a bout of efficiency, and also because I’d rounded up all the random tasks and there were 83 of them, I decided on a new approach.
I created a lovely grid with a column for each day and tasks assigned to each part of the day. Morning and evening had repetitive tasks (play the bass guitar, wash up, prepare breakfast, eat dinner) influenced by my experiments with doing things earlier in the day. The centre part of each column had tasks unique to that day. I had an idea that I would allocate a set amount of time to each allowing me to allocate depending on how busy my schedule was. However that never really happened. Instead, I just try not to fill all of the boxes on every single day.
This seemed like a brilliant approach. I spent a bit of time each Sunday creating the planning sheet for the following week. It was great that I only had to look at one piece of paper. I could see what I had planned for the entire week. But it was still easy to make myself focus on the appropriate section for the time of day.
And then a few weeks back I found myself pulling out 3 cards and copying morning, daytime and evening tasks onto them. Followed by doing the same the next day. And the next.
It would seem that I am not satisfied with one job list. That I greedily want more than one. Part of me thinks it seems logical to focus on my grid sheet. I enjoy the time I spend planning on Sunday afternoons. I’m doing much better at not overestimating what I can achieve. However, I also enjoy the time I spend planning each day and rewriting my job list. Plus there’s double satisfaction in ticking a task off on both lists.
So what will happen next? Will I add a third and fourth layer to my list-making? Or will one of my current lists fall from favour? That’s the thing with systems. They change all the time because of life changes all the time. So for the moment, I’m seeing this as a lesson in going with the flow.
I used to be a complete listophile until I realised that the VAST majority of things I was telling myself I “had” to do, I didn’t have to do at all! I mean yeah, it’s nice when the washing up is done, but you don’t HAVE to do it. No one dies if you don’t. And at some point you’ll get fed up with the pile (or the lack of clean plates) and just do it – so you don’t actually need to schedule it in. The same goes for so many other things that, really, you’re just doing for fun or because you “should” or because you always have done.
The only things that really need to be on a To Do list – in my opinion – are things that you HAVE to do, and you might forget to do if you don’t make a note. I now live happily with one small list on my phone and what feels like a whole lot more free time and open possibilities!
The funny thing is, I probably end up doing more of the tidying / general errands etc than I did before, because I feel free and unpressured, so I just do them when I think of them – whereas before I felt overwhelmed and then just panicked and/or procrastinated!