To do or not to do – that is the question!

I touched on to-do lists in a recent Facebook post and a few people commented that they couldn’t ever quite get their heads around to-do lists. So, being a Monica and partial to a to-do list or two, I thought it would be good to share some ideas!

Love them or loathe them, to-do lists are a necessity for your productivity and can help you feel focused and motivated – if you’re using them correctly!

So, here are my top 5 tips for successful to-do listing!

1. Be realistic – don’t plan 100 tasks for one day, you will feel totally de-motivated if you only accomplish a handful of them.
2. Know what you HAVE to get done that day – obviously there are always going to be tasks that you have to get done, so make them first on your list!
3. Group tasks together – plan to do similar or related tasks at the same time, that way you’ll be focused on that particular area/client/project.
4. Find a system that works for you – I’m very much PC based and find that Toodledo.com is my all time favourite! I’ve tried a few others but just love the functionality of it! BUT that doesn’t mean I don’t use good old paper and pen too; I like to use both and mix and match as my day goes on!
5. Keep it current – nothing worse than looking at your to-do list and realising that it’s out of date and things that you need to get done aren’t on there, and things that you have done are!

I’m also partial to my white board for all those times I get some inspiration about new projects or things I’d like to do! Then as they become more concrete they make it onto my Toodledo list.

Another way to make to-do lists more effective is to have good organisation in your office/workspace; for example if you’re coming to do your accounts and then spend 30mins looking for all your receipts/invoices etc it’s not the most productive use of your time. Use in trays, drop files or anything that keeps it all together so that when you go to start the task you’re all set!

The key thing with your to-do list is to make it work for YOU! Because even with all your good intentions there will always be days when that email/call comes in that’ll make you do a complete u turn!