I have to say that today’s question is one of my favourites 🙂
Simply because lists are some of my favourite things in the world.
Amanda Jean says:
I need help making To-Do lists, I know that sounds too easy but I’ve never been a list maker and don’t know where to start. I need help knowing how to get started with each new task. Or motivational ideas to keep you going with you’ve reached the need for a second wind.
Lots of questions within that question.
Here’s my answer:
I’m actually a huge fan of to-do lists and I believe you need to have at least three but for today’s purpose, we’ll talk about two
a master to-do list
this is one with everything under the sun, so you don’t lose any of it while going about life
and a daily/ weekly to-do list
this is where you take things from your master list and add them to a shorter, more manageable list.
(if my master list wasn’t such a mess of colour and scribbles, I’d take a pic and show you)
Don’t put more than 6 items on your daily to-do list.
6 seems to be my comfort number. If I add any more than that, I still only do 5 or 6. When you do get your 5 or 6 done (whatever your comfort number is), you’ll feel AWESOME and productive 🙂
On starting
Start with the one that may be the most difficult but is the one that will bring you the closest to your goals. I call these tasks frogs.
On getting motivated
Here are some of my ideas. Accountability is a big one for me.
How do you make your to-do list? And then how do you tackle yours?
At first I thought it was indeed a simple question, but it’s not. Making a to-do list isn’t a natural – don’t-need-to-learn-it task AT ALL, and this post is a great reminder. And simply explained, as usual!
I make to do lists every day I have a day at home, and clearing up to do, but I have way more than 6 items on it!!! I break each room into sections, so rather than tidy sitting room, I would have tidy tv cabinet, sofa, floor, mantlepiece, clean out fire, hoover etc. This means I get the satisfaction of crossing each item off when I do it. If I have big things to do, I write the numbers 10, 20, 30 after them, then I work in blocks of 3, I do 10 minutes on the first task, then the next, then the next, then go back to the first and do 20 minutes etc etc, if something gets finished before the end of 30, it just gets crossed off, and on to the next thing. That helps to keep me motivated to keep going 🙂
I’ve been trying to make a 35 list since… forever and my birthday was Sunday and I’m stuck at like 7 things. I fail LOL