05 January 2011

To Do Lists - Revisited

I find revisiting previously discussed topics often springs up some new ideas that may not have been discussed before.

This morning for instance Giovani from Brazil sent me a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal - Five Tips for Managing Your To-Do List I found it a very useful article. Take a read for yourself.

The previous articles on To-Do lists on Philofaxy are also worth a revisit.

Have you discovered any new ways of organising your To-Do lists?


9 comments:

  1. The system I use (mostly at work, but this year I'm hoping to extend it to home too) is this:
    I have global 'to-do' task-lists (one for work and one for non-work). The urgency of the tasks is indicated by asterisks (* = low; ** = medium; *** = high. That way, when I haven't got round to things, I can add an extra * to push it up the list!). I don't have 'must-do-by' dates atatched (unless there genuinely IS a must-do-by associated with the task.
    I have a Daily to-do' list
    I put fixed appointments in my diary and leave the rest as white space

    At the start of the week, I look at my global to-do list and see how many *** and ** things are on it. Those are my priorities. Then, each morning, I check my diary and see how much white space there is. I then add a (hopefully) achievable set of items off my global list onto my Daily list (but don't schedule them - they are just on a list).
    As they get done, I cross them off. At the end of the day I then cross things off the global list and re-assess the number of asterisks each item should have. If there are things that didn't get done, I add them automatically to the next day's daily list.

    So, that's my system. It works pretty well for me at work and I'm hoping to apply it to the non-work side too.
    I'd be interested to hear what others do.
    Amanda

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  2. this may be blasphemy here at philofaxy but the best tip for managing your to-do list i know is spend less time rearranging it and more time actually doing the stuff on it. works for me.

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  3. :-)
    Know what you mean. But my work to-do list can be HUGE, largely because if I don't write a task down, it will get forgotten and missed. Consequently, everything is in together, regardless of urgency so I do need to manage the list a bit. It's not just so I can use my filofax! - I did this long before I started using that, but I do find the filofax is a lot neater than the scraps of paper jammed into my desk diary was!

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  4. But if you complete your To-Do list you won't have a need for that page in your Filofax... and that just will not do!!!! ;-)

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  5. wunderlist is pretty great.

    I use Evernote right now, but kind of switch back and forth between the two.

    I also write things that must be done today on today's calendar.

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  6. oh, my list is never done. i'm constantly adding new stuff to it. but i'm also very conscious of the fact that i can procrastinate (the student's watchword!) for AGES rearranging planners, colour-coding notes etc., instead of actually getting stuff done. i think if i had more stuff on my list i would need to organise it more though.

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  7. The system I have used successfully for 10 years is breaking down. At work my to-do items are coming in so fast I am struggling even to read them in order to prioritise. I need to work out a new system... :(

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  8. Oh no! Nellie, you sound like you need a new job rather than a new system!
    :-(

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  9. Ooh, nice article! I love the $ and :-) idea, but since I'm not a business owner or entrepreneur out hunting for customers or cash flow, I'll have to think about how to tweak it to suit. I think, though, that instead of "get out the good ole yellow legal pad" he should have said "get out the good ole trusty filofax" ;-)

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