I love lists, they are literally my lifeline. I have lists for almost every facet of my life. I also need to write down dates, calendar events, even my morning routine. I have teenagers, so they are accountable for their own work, school, and daily routine, so I have been working on teaching them the value of a list. They think I am crazy when I help them create their lists for the day, but inevitably, they are seen crossing things off their list throughout the day, even showing me what they accomplished. This is great because the more they accomplish on their own, the less I have to do for them. Ahh, organization all around!!
Studies show that people perform better when they have written down what they need to do. Why is that? It seems forming and following a list decreases the anxiety of accomplishing our tasks, give us structure, and shows us what we have achieved (the cross out method). I totally agree. I know for a fact that I am more productive at work and life when I have a list of what I plan to accomplish each day before I start the day. I also use my calendar as a part of the list. Scheduling as much as possible in my calendar provides me with the structure to accomplish each task since I have it neatly placed in a timeslot during the day. My calendar also makes sure I don’t take too long to complete certain tasks, or get distracted doing something totally outside the bounds of my list. In short, writing down my tasks AND calendaring them in my calendar (on my phone of course), ensures I am productive both in my work and family life.
So how do you start this amazing habit? In my opinion, start with a diary/journal. I found that having a diary of just my to do list offers me the opportunity to consistently see my accomplishments, and also keeps me organized. I used to put all notes for the day in the diary, and found I was very disorganized because I could never find a note I took, or something I wrote down. Now, I have a notebook for notetaking, and a diary for my to do list. Things are so much better in my brain.
Get started, you will not regret it.
Mom. Wife. Lawyer. 