Does your ‘to do’ list inspire you? Or is it just a series of jobs that you may have been interested in when you wrote them down but at any rate you need to get them done one way or another?
However tedious the tasks are on your list, it should be possible to phrase them in a way that you are more likely to actually do them and then either enjoy the ‘doing’ or at least enjoy the fact that you can tick them off.
You see often the problem with a ‘to do’ list is it is a scribbled list of things that have been jotted down in a hurry without you really thinking about it. Then when you come to look at the list you discover that actually what you have is a mixture of some things which are just single steps (e.g. “ring Billy”) and some which are whole projects (“paint the garage”). And if you have just written “ring Billy”, what are you ringing Billy about and do you have his phone number to hand?
So I would suggest that this full list of all sorts of things is your master list. You need a place to scribble stuff down, or jot it down on the computer, so that you don’t forget. But this then needs sorting into lists that you can actually do things with. So take each item at a time and look at it. First, is it a project? i.e. will it take more than one step to complete it? Painting the garage for example may actually consist of: check I have paint, check I have brushes, buy more paint, clear garage out, wash down walls, paint walls. So six steps in all. If things turn out to be projects, give them their own separate list.
For things that are just single items, make sure they are worded clearly and contain all the information you need. Ring Billy re borrowing his bike: 4345 4565. If you regularly have phone calls to make you may even like to have a phone call list so you can clear them all in one go, or at least clear some of them together. If you have several errands to run in your local town or city, then group those onto a list. The key is to get your lists into a state where you have done all the thinking you need to do about the items and you just need to go out and do them.
Finally make yourself a current list for the day with the items that you want to do. Not too many. Always better to have fewer and clear them all than keep taking them over from day to day because that way they get jaded too and you are less likely to want to do them.
Now, hopefully, as you look down your list you will feel inspired to pick up your pen, open a document on the computer or go out and collect that book from the library, because you have created things that you can actually do, easily, without having to think about them any more.
I have been a list maker for many years now and this comes from that experience. But a lot of these principles are outlined and defined even more in GTD (Getting Things Done), so if you want to take this further, head on over to the GTD site and really get yourself organised!
Feeling creative? 