Spring Cleaning Week 3: Using To-Do Lists to Create Order

In a previous post I talked about the importance of starting your clutter cleaning by dealing with "active" items and seeing results. I admit that I was so excited to get started with my spring cleaning, I didn't stop to consider how much time would be needed and never made it to my To-Do List task! Setting time estimates aside, let's look at making to-do lists.

Convert Piles Into Lists

I love having lots of balls in the air, and I wear many different hats in my life. A To-Do List can seem overwhelming when you stop to realize how much is circling around in your brain!

To help me manage all these "active" things I have been piling, I've been splitting things out between:

• A list of what projects exist
• A list of what needs to be done (primarily single tasks, not part of a larger project)
• Places to put items - finding ways to cluster certain items and places to store them

I realized that my piles had been my way of remembering what I had to do - but as the piles grew and grew, there was more than I could track. Now I'm trying a new technique - make a reference list of the actions required, and then store the project items so I can easily find them when I'm ready to do the task.

NOTE: In future posts, I'll cover how to create a Project List to track and prioritize projects, and how to store items for future projects so they have a purposeful place instead of creating clutter.

Managing projects is its own ball of wax; I'm just dealing right now with those pesky small tasks that get lost in the wilds of daily life. Ah, the proverbial To-Do List.

How To Make a To-Do List

I am using a legal pad with 4 lists on one page. I break the page into 4 parts...

 

and then put the items in the appropriate section. Remember, we're just dealing with tasks that only have a few steps (try no more than 3).

FYI/Upcoming

I use this for schedules. Here I note the activities we have going on outside of the normal routine so I can see at a glance where I am going to fit in getting my "to-do's" done.

To Do This Week

This section could be for a day or a week. I'm going to try "week" for now because I found myself getting into issues with a single day. This section lists items outside of the normal routine, things that I need to remember to do.

Stay high level on project items, etc. Ex: "Grocery store" instead of listing "pick up milk, eggs, juice". I'm going to use my grocery list when I go to complete that task.

Where I can, I note the day when I want to do the task:

• MON: Schedule dentist appointment
• TUE: Grocery store

Don't cross it off unless you've completely finished it!

Waiting

Use this to make sure things don't fall off the radar. Let's say you work on one of your to-do tasks, but it's not done because you need someone to do something first. Leave it on your to-do section, but make note in the Waiting section of where it stands (Ex: Party - Left voicemails re: reserving room, ordering food).

Schedule Later

As you go through your week, if there is something that should be done in a future week (maybe you know when, maybe you don't), put it here so you don't lose the thought. Jot down any due dates that are important. When you sit down to revise/write your To-Do List for next week, you'll pull things off this list, or you'll move items to your project list as appropriate.


How do you organize your To-Do List?