Are you the type of person who starts off every day by making a To Do list? There is certainly something satisfying about writing out that list and then checking off each item as it gets done. It makes you feel as though you?re accomplishing things. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that you?re probably wasting a lot of time creating and checking off that To Do list. It?s smarter to find productive ways to replace the To Do list so that you still get everything done without wasting all of that time writing out your lists.
Here are some productive alternatives to the To Do list that you can start using today:
??Online calendars especially shared online calendars. One of the best ways to replace the To Do list with a positive alternative is to get in the habit of using an online calendar such as Google Calendars. This allows you to enter repetitive tasks only once rather than re-writing them every day. It?s especially productive when you are working on a team with others because you can share your calendars with them to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to due dates and meeting times. You save time not only because you?re not writing out a To Do list all of the time but also because you?re reducing the interaction required with others for reporting on tasks and making plans.
??Task management software. A similar alternative to the standard To Do list is task management software. This software incorporates a To Do list with a calendar and allows you to assign tasks within a group. If you regularly work with a team of people then this can be a far more effective way of organizing and assigning tasks than a traditional To Do list is.
??Do things as you think about doing them. Where a lot of people waste a lot of time with a To Do list is that they write something down that they could just do when they thought of doing it. Phone calls are a great example; instead of writing down ?Call Bob? just pick up the phone and call him. The task gets taken out of the way and you haven?t wasted time on planning to do something that you could easily just do. Responding immediately to email is another example of this.
??A template To Do list. If you really feel that you must have a To Do list that you can check off then the least that you can do to increase your own productivity is to create a template To Do list that you can print out copies of for your own use. You?ll find that most of the tasks on your To Do list are repeated every week so figure out what those tasks are and then create your template. This can be done in Microsoft Word or Excel although it?s also possible to get To Do list software that will make it even easier for you.
By reducing the amount of time that you waste writing To Do lists you can significantly increase the actual amount of productivity in your work day. Although you won?t be feeling that surge of pride after checking off each item, you can go home at the end of the day proud of the fact that you truly didn?t waste any time in getting your work done. One person even switched over to a did-do list to gain that same sense of accomplishment without reducing productivity.
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To Do lists indeed increase my every day productivity. I prefer using basic To Do list for every day tasks and online calendars (Google Calendar) for tasks due in more than a week.