Let’s Talk About To-Do Lists

Hello, my name is Maggie, and I am addicted to To-Do Lists.

I use to-do lists for everything: daily tasks, weekly tasks, one-off tasks, projects, events, and so much more. I write them for myself, for other people in my life, for groups of people I’m going to hang out with… The list goes on and on.

Why? Well, despite what people think, it’s mostly because I am very forgetful and scattered-brained! As someone who is labeled an “organized” person, people often assume that I have a good memory, but that is certainly not the case. In fact, it’s precisely because I CAN’T remember things that I have to write everything down. (Can anyone relate?!)

Sometime between high school and college, I transitioned from using mostly paper to-do lists and planners to mostly digital. So for the past 10 years I have primarily been using various apps on my phone and computer to track my lists, and I’ve refined my process a lot over that time. Here is how I’m currently managing my to-do lists, and some of my favorite apps that I would recommend!

My Main To-Do List

Of the many different to-do list apps that I’ve tried, my favorites for managing my main to-do list are TickTick and Todoist. Both are highly customizable with categories, tags, prioritization, notes, sub-tasks, and plenty of date/time options. If you are looking for something a little bit more simple and straightforward with options to customize, I’d recommend Todoist, because I think it has a simpler user interface when you’re just working with basic, smaller lists on a day-to-day basis. If you are more interested in complex prioritization and categorization, I’d recommend TickTick, because I think it does a better job of distinguishing by priority within a given day. I used Todoist for years, but I switched to TickTick a year ago when my life (and thus to-do list) got a little crazier.

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Regardless of which app you use, I recommend the following:

Basic Tips for Structuring Your To-Do Lists

1. Keep your tasks small. If it can’t be done in one day, break it down into multiple steps and plan them out over a reasonable period of time.
2. Keep your lists focused. It is perfectly fine to maintain multiple to-do lists, each one focusing on a different category of your life. For example, I keep my work to-do list on my work computer, completely separate from my personal to-do list. Then when I’m at work, I only work through my work to-do list. And when I’m not, I only work through my personal to-do list. You could even do this on a more granular level, but it works best according to how your life is time-blocked (i.e. don’t separate out items that you may need to be focusing on at the same time).
3. Use colors and emojis to your advantage. I like to coordinate the colors of my categories with what they represent (ex. green for outside tasks), because it helps my brain quickly visualize where or what I need to be doing. Emojis are great for this, too. Your brain will process pictures faster than words, so they are actually EFFICIENT in addition to being fun!
4. Choose your words carefully. How you write your task matters. For example, let’s say you want to sell your old phone. You write down: “Sell old phone”. But then, after you post it for sale online, you can’t cross it off until someone agrees to purchase it. Since you don’t have control over that, you’ll keep delaying that task day after day, which is annoying and takes up valuable brainpower that you should be using to focus on actionable tasks. Rather, I would recommend saying: “Post old phone for sale”. Then: “Lower price of old phone” maybe a week later, etc. And then whenever someone buys it, you can then add “Package up and send old phone” to your to-do list. When you define tasks as only your actions, you remove the dependencies and allow yourself to cross them off more intentionally.

My Daily To-Do List

In past couple of years there have been a lot of changes in my life and my responsibilities. We bought a house, so I had more space to take care of. We had a baby, so I had more needs to meet. I started working-from-home full-time, which put a greater strain on our living spaces. All of these transitions have been blessings for which I am extremely grateful, but I also found myself getting overwhelmed with the responsibilities of caring for my home and cleaning up after my growing family. It is A LOT, and I’m very forgetful, so I wanted a way to feel more organized in my approach.

Enter my Daily To-Do List. This list acts as my reminders throughout the day to do what I need to do, especially as it relates to my house. This list is only for things that I need (or someone in my household needs) to do every day. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but it can be helpful if you’re looking to add more structure to your days.

Of course, you would certainly want to adopt this list to your own needs… For example: You may have to take medicine or give medicine to your children at different times of the day. You may want to add in certain activities that are more related to childcare than household care. You may have certain areas of your house that you don’t need to clean every day. And hopefully, you may even remember to “get ready” for the day without needing a written reminder! (The motherhood-quarantine combo really changed me, you guys.)

I keep this list in the Apple Notes app on my phone, and I check in with it periodically throughout the day. For example, right before lunch time, I ask myself, “Have I done everything on the Morning To-Do List?” If not, then I catch up right then, as much as is reasonable. Same goes for the end of the work day for the Afternoon section and after the kid’s bedtime for the Evening section.

However, I mostly try to check things off of this list as I go, because that helps me maintain a clean house throughout the day (more on that in this post!). I feel most at peace when the house is clean, and working through this list every day is the most manageable way for me to make that happen.

To-Do Lists for Long-Term Projects

There are some tasks and projects that don’t have big time constraints. I always like these because I can just do them in my free time and work at my own pace. However, I do still want to make some progress and not let them fall by the wayside (which is very easy to do when there aren’t deadlines!). For this type of work, I really like the app/website Trello.

Like most to-do apps, Trello has many customization options. However I like it because it is fundamentally based on the “Kanban” framework, which uses columns to demonstrate the workflow of tasks, and helps people focus on one or a few tasks at a time. By minimizing your “work in progress”, you can usually get more work done because you are not wasting time jumping around from one task to another.

Recently I have especially been using Trello for home improvement projects, such as landscaping, fixing things, re-decorating, etc. Any time that something in our house needs to be done (if it’s not urgent), I add it to my “Dennis Home” board. I created some columns for each season, one for “This Month”, one for “In Progress”, and one for “Done”. Then I can easily move tasks around and visualize our plans for the whole year, while still allowing myself to primarily focus on what needs to be done in the house this week or this month.

Collaborative To-Do Lists

When it comes to collaborating, I prefer to keep it simple by using Apple Notes or Google Docs. There are some very powerful tools and apps (including Trello) that have great collaborative features, but you’d need everyone you’re collaborating with to use them too. If I were running a business or needing to solve complex problems, I would invest the time and money in a great tool. But for my personal life, I think it’s easier to just use a standard document or note that can be easily accessed in an app that nearly everyone already has—such as Apple Notes or Google Docs.

Examples of Collaborative Lists:

• Grocery Lists: Cooper and I have a shared note for our household that we update whenever we think of something that we need, and then either of us has access to it if we’re at the store. Similarly, when we go on family vacations, my mom creates a shared note specifically for the trip that we all can contribute to. Then we just delete it when the trip is over, or reference it as a starting point for our next trip.
• Party Plans: When I am hosting a bridal shower, baby shower, or birthday party with someone else, I like to create a shared Google Doc or Apple Notes with all of the necessary information: to-do list, schedule, food, decorations, activities, etc.
• Movies to Watch: Ever since we started a regular movie night (best move ever), Cooper and I love to have movie suggestions written down and ready to go. We add to it whenever we see something we might want to watch together, and then it helps us avoid scrolling for hours!

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There are so many ways to structure your to-do lists. Bottom line: there is no wrong answer! Do whatever works best for you. But hopefully this post has provided you with some new ideas or perspectives for how to get more done or feel less overwhelmed throughout your day.

Do you have any tips or tricks when it comes to writing your to-do lists? Or favorite apps? I’d love to hear more ideas in the comments below!