2 Signs Your To-Do Lists Aren’t Actually Working (And How Best to Fix Them)
Make the unchecked box your friend, not your enemy.
Don’t you just love the idea of crossing things out, or better, finally ticking that tiny little box that’s residing so innocently next to the task you planned the night before?
I bet you love the feeling of knowing that you’ve had an awesome day when you’ve done everything you set out to do.
But what happens when you don’t accomplish everything? What happens when your to-do list remains unchecked, day after day, sometimes even month after month?
Can you handle it? Or does it eat you up inside? Do those unticked boxes cause you sleepless nights, while encouraging you to lose faith in what you thought was the best productivity hack you’ve stumbled across since the Pomodoro technique? Probably.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s not that to-do lists are bad for you. It’s that you’re likely obsessed with them. And you’re too deep into using them to realise how they’re becoming more of a hindrance than an advantageous tool, mentally that is.
Again, I’m not saying to stop using them. The goal, rather, is to form a healthier relationship with how we incorporate to-do lists into our work and non-work lives. Essentially, it comes down to making a few small adjustments that find the right balance between being productive vs. staying healthy.
How to Overcome the Mental & Physical Exhaustion That Comes With Keeping a To-Do List
You might view your to-do list as your most trustworthy companion to guide you through your day. You might accomplish a lot as a result.
But how do you actually feel when you find yourself smashing through each task like the Incredible Hulk barging through brick walls?
A bit sore, right? Probably even too tired to notice (and feel good about) how much you’ve achieved in the space of 12–14 hours.
You’re misled into believing that by writing everything down on one gigantic list, you’ll be able to maximise your output. But what you fail to realise is how you’re compromising your mental and physical health by doing so.
You’ve forgotten what it means to take a break, to go for a walk, to take time to meditate, journal, do all the mindfulness tricks you told yourself you were going to try on the first of January.
So what should you do instead?
Cap your to-do list at 5–10 items per day, max.
You’ve heard this before, it’s been said countless times that you should stick to 3 tasks a day — nothing more, nothing less.
I tried this, but I later found how most of the items that go on my to-do list only take 30 minutes to an hour to complete — e.g. finish writing that email, tidy up that PowerPoint presentation, and so on. If you find this too, choose 5–10 tasks a day instead. Either way, pick a number, and stick with it.
But wait, what happens if something else pops up later on in the day? Write it on a separate post-it note, and save it for tomorrow’s to-do list. And unless it’s mind-bogglingly urgent, whatever you do, don’t add it to today’s list.
Remember, the aim is to preserve your wellbeing by not using your to-do lists as a mechanism to take on more work than you can handle. Essentially, it’s about finding the right balance between work vs. wellbeing.
How to Effectively Organise Your To-Do Lists Without Making Them Never-Ending
This next warning sign arises when you’re too obsessed with the concept of a to-do list to realise that not everything has to go on your list. This sounds somewhat similar to what we’ve discussed above — a long to-do list that you’re able to complete is mentally and physically exhausting.
But a long to-do list that you’re unable to complete, well, that’s also mentally and physically exhausting too, just in a slightly different way.
So when does this scenario creep up? Well, let’s say you’ve been handed a significant project that’s expected to span over multiple weeks. It’s certainly not a “quick-win” task that’ll take a few minutes to complete, but you still write it down every single morning on a fresh page within your notebook (as you did the day before).
And by 11 am, before you head into your next meeting, it’s surrounded with other things like, “Ask Jane what to bring home for dinner”, the 5 follow-up points from your meeting that you need to get done by 3 pm, and of course, random junk like, “Don’t forget to reply to Bob’s message on Slack”.
Eventually, you’ll end the day with a list that’s stretched over a few pages of A4, but also muddled with tasks that don’t belong next to each other.
As a result, your to-do list is too big to contain. You began your day with 5 items, it somehow grew to 30, and guess what, you’ve only completed 10. You walk away feeling like a failure, when in fact, your approach was all wrong.
Simply, you’ve made the mistake of adding everything you could possibly think of to just one to-do list.
If this is you, if you’re the type of person that likes to jot down everything that springs to mind, then it’s time to do two things.
First, build distinct checklists for tasks of a different nature.
Separate the “quick-wins” from your ongoing projects — physically write them down in different places in your notebook, use multiple tabs in Microsoft OneNote (if that’s you). Either way, keep these lists aside.
This way you’ll benefit from having a checklist that reflects how you’ve completed all the tasks you set out to achieve that day, and another one to purely remind you of the ongoing projects that still require attention over coming days.
Second, stop making your to-do lists longer than they need to be.
Here, David Allen’s two-minute rule comes in handy:
If a task takes less than 2 minutes to complete, then get it done now.
If you see an email that can be dealt with quickly, reply instantly. Don’t save it for later.
Of course, if you’re in the zone on something else, and you’ve already decided that all email-checking can wait until your dedicated hour of 4 pm to 5 pm, then stick to that. But don’t tell yourself at 4:59 pm, that the email received at 4:58 pm should be added to tomorrow’s to-do list because replying today will take you to 5:01 pm. Sigh.
Again, I stress, don’t make your to-do lists longer than they need to be. Refrain from writing everything down and creating more tension inside when you glance at a never-ending list of uncompleted tasks. Those tiny unchecked boxes will only eat away at your mind when you decide it’s time to call it a day.
A Quick Recap
Here’s a short reminder of how to best incorporate to-do lists into your daily routine without allowing them to gobble up your mental energy.
- Cap your list at 3, 5, 10, etc. items a day — choose whatever number that works best for the type of tasks you typically add to your list.
- Separate your lists into “quick-win” tasks vs. ongoing projects. Each has a different purpose that should never be muddled together.
- If a task can take less than 2 minutes to complete, do it there and then. There’s no need to write it down and expand a list that should remain intrinsically concise.
Always remember how the aim, as with most productivity tips, is to centre them around your life, and never, the other way round.
