Time Management - How to Write a To-Do List
It is a well known adage that people who write down what they want to achieve are many more times likely to succeed.
When you write what you would like to do each day this will enable you to keep focused on what you plan to do.
Writing a to-do list will help to stop you flitting from one task to another and help to keep you focused on what need to be done.
It is very motivating to tick off the jobs as you do them and see the list getting smaller.
However there is still the temptation to neglect some things that you should have done because either you don't put them on the list or they are ignored even though on it.
If you have a to-do list you need to discover the reasons you procrastinate and why some things get ignored.
Do you put off doing some things because you don't know how to do it, or because doing that task is against your personal values, or you don't believe it needs to be done.
Ask yourself why.
Sometimes it's better to get those things you really don't want to do over first thing in the day so then you have the rest of the day to do those enjoyable things.
There are various practical ways to write a to-do list.
Your to-do list can be a vertical list or in the form of a mind-map.
A list just places one task under another without any indication of the importance or urgency of the task so there is the temptation to start at the top and work through the list from top to bottom.
On the other hand drawing a mind map which is a representation of the way your mind works and allows you to more easily make connections between the different tasks.
In order to draw a mind map start with your paper as landscape and write a word such as ' to do' in the centre of the page with a line drawn around it.
Then take lines radiating out from it with drawings or more words of what has to be done.
Each subject you writ will then suggest more words and tasks related to it.
You will end up with a scatter diagram across the page and it's easy to see then which things are connected.
You can use coloured pens to join these and will realise what task naturally can be done together.
So a mind mapped to-do list is I think the way to go for more efficiency and more time too.
When you write what you would like to do each day this will enable you to keep focused on what you plan to do.
Writing a to-do list will help to stop you flitting from one task to another and help to keep you focused on what need to be done.
It is very motivating to tick off the jobs as you do them and see the list getting smaller.
However there is still the temptation to neglect some things that you should have done because either you don't put them on the list or they are ignored even though on it.
If you have a to-do list you need to discover the reasons you procrastinate and why some things get ignored.
Do you put off doing some things because you don't know how to do it, or because doing that task is against your personal values, or you don't believe it needs to be done.
Ask yourself why.
Sometimes it's better to get those things you really don't want to do over first thing in the day so then you have the rest of the day to do those enjoyable things.
There are various practical ways to write a to-do list.
Your to-do list can be a vertical list or in the form of a mind-map.
A list just places one task under another without any indication of the importance or urgency of the task so there is the temptation to start at the top and work through the list from top to bottom.
On the other hand drawing a mind map which is a representation of the way your mind works and allows you to more easily make connections between the different tasks.
In order to draw a mind map start with your paper as landscape and write a word such as ' to do' in the centre of the page with a line drawn around it.
Then take lines radiating out from it with drawings or more words of what has to be done.
Each subject you writ will then suggest more words and tasks related to it.
You will end up with a scatter diagram across the page and it's easy to see then which things are connected.
You can use coloured pens to join these and will realise what task naturally can be done together.
So a mind mapped to-do list is I think the way to go for more efficiency and more time too.
