Why does my to-do list never get done?

Today's episode is all about To-Do Lists. There's one thing that almost everyone is missing in their daily systems - and it's a really simple and powerful fix that 10x the effectiveness of your To-Do Lists.  

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Transcript

Welcome to A Little Bit Unstoppable. This podcast is for artists, creators, and change makers in any industry who have powerful ideas that might just change the world or at least a small piece of it. My name is Brielle Goheen and I am a clutter coach for creatives. I help people declutter their minds, declutter their physical and digital spaces, and most importantly, declutter their dreams and hack their habits so that the most important things become the easiest to do. I believe that creativity will change the world, so I want to equip you to release your creativity with power in a way that is effortless and sustainable. One of the small, simple ways that I do this is through my weekly newsletter - Unstoppable Bit by Bit. If you’d like to receive encouragement, inspiration, and an inside look into my life, head over to briellegoheen.com to sign up. Without further ado, let’s get started with today’s episode.

Hello and welcome to Episode 7 of A Little Bit Unstoppable! Today I’m going to be talking about the question, “Why Doesn’t My To-Do List ever Get Done?” Those pesky little suckers just never seem to get done! Getting the list done might even be so elusive that you may be surprised at the thought that it’s even supposed to get done! I mean, “supposed to” is relative - there is no perfect way to do a To-Do list, but I can tell you, the feeling of throwing away a To-Do list at the end of each week because every single item on that list has been completed - well, that is an amazing feeling. You feel so accomplished. Throwing away that completed list feels like getting a prize or some kind or special recognition from yourself for a job well done. And, I don’t even think it’s an exaggeration to say that it makes you feel you’re flying through life empowered with special abilities that no-one else seems to have - like some kind of super hero. So, I’m going to share with you and empower you with these special abilities so that you, too, can become a To-Do list superhero! I’m going to share with you the one fundamental thing that almost everyone is doing wrong. And, spoiler alert, it’s a really simple and powerful fix. And then I’m going to share with you a few different things you can experiment with to organize your To-Do list so that every item gets done.

The problem with most To-Do lists is that they are a complete mish-mash of things. There are calendar appointments, things to buy from the grocery store, things to order online, people to talk to at work or at home, people to talk to that are away right now (and you kind of have to wait til they get back but you don’t want to forget about it), things that are incredibly urgent and absolutely must be done today, things that are completely optional to you and just a, “it would be nice to do that…” and maintenance things that need to be done, but don’t necessarily have a strict timeline on them. There are 2 minute tasks, 10 minute tasks, 30 minute tasks, and 3 hour tasks and 3 day tasks sometimes. There are things you know you’ll remember no matter what, and things that you would completely forget about if it wasn’t written down. So, no wonder a list that’s this complex and so multi-faceted - no wonder a list like this is not working for you! No wonder you feel overwhelmed when you look at it and want to stuff it away and forget about life for a second! Just think how much valuable brain function is being used up by just looking at the list itself and trying to make decisions on what to do next.

Alright, get ready for this. There is the one simple, easy, quick fix you can make today to get your To-Do list working for you. I’m going to tell you what it is first, and then tell you why it will make such a big difference for you. Here it is - make a separate Routines List. Your routines list will hold all the repeated tasks in your life - those things that tend to get written over and over on your To-Do lists, maybe every single day or every single week, whether or not they get crossed off. Things like going to the gym, cleaning the bathrooms, meditating… Anything that you do more than once on a regular basis. The items on your Routines List will generally fall into two categories.

The first category is the optional items - these are the things that you generally want to get to in a week, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t do them every single time that you’d ideally like to. So this might include things like journalling, drinking 8 glasses of water a day, or deep cleaning a particular space. The second category is essential items - these are the routines that must get done at a certain repeated time interval - maybe paying bills every month, checking in each day on an aging parent, weekly music lessons or soccer practices.

Don’t make a new Routines List each week - just make one that includes all the routines that you can think of. So spend about 5 minutes brainstorming the routines that you have - your daily routines, your weekly routines, your monthly routines - and include optional routines and essential routines, and post it somewhere where you’ll see it often throughout your day. You’ll only need to make a new one when your routines change significantly.

There’s a second thing you can do to just boost your To-Do list efficiency as well. Keep all your calendar items or appointments off of your To-Do list. There’s no reason for them to be there! They should already be on your calendar or your day planner, and most of us have a functioning digital or physical calendar that we check on at least once a day. So let them live there, and there only, so they don’t clog up your To-Do List.

Alright, now let me tell you why this is so powerful. When your To-Do list is cleared of all of the optional items, all the essential routines that have to happen so regularly at a certain time interval that they essentially become automatic habits, and all of your calendar appointments, the only things that are left are the things that you actually have to do! Imagine that! A To-Do list with only things on it that need to be done! Your list will be so much more streamlined just by adding a Routines List to your life and by dedicating your calendar or day planner as the only place to keep all your appointments. You won’t be sorting through your To Do list with the frame of mind that some of these things might not actually need to be done. Everything that remains on your To-Do list should be things that actually really do need to be done and need to be done by you.

Most people use some kind of To-Do list system, and most people have a Calendar where they keep track of appointments, but almost nobody has a Routines List. And I certainly didn’t before I learned about this trick. This is the missing link in your system for actually getting your To-Do list done. And for most people, their Calendar items just  have a sneaky way of duplicating themselves onto your To-Do list. So don’t do that! It just overwhelms your mind! And you have to sort through many different categories and it just adds time and confusion to everything.

Okay, so now that that huge piece of the puzzle is out of the way, I have a few more strategies for your To Do list itself to get it working better for you. So there’s some more further categorization that we can do so that just at a glance you can look at your To-Do list and immediately see what needs to be done now, what can be done later. But remember, all of the items that are on your To-Do list are things that do need to be done. So we’ve already taken care of that problem. But then there’s the question of prioritization and location and things like that. So we can still segment this list a little further to reduce confusion when you look at it.

So the first strategy is this:make one To-Do list for one full week. Since you’re keeping the repeated daily activities over on your Routines List, it won’t get too long even with a week’s worth of To-Do items on it. And your goal is to get through that before you keep adding more and more and more and more items onto it. Don’t overburden it. This is only things that you’re going to get done this week. And you can even have a next week list if you want for next week. But if you find in the course of a week that you don’t get the things on your To-Do list done, then that points to the fact that you’ve put too many things on your To-Do list. So then adjust for the following week. Take off 25% of the items and really limit yourself to a smaller number of things, and actually get them done. And then if you find that you have more time, you can always add more things. So make just one To-Do list for a full week.

Okay, now back to the point I was making before, even with your calendar appointments and your routines off of your To-Do list, it’s still going to be a bit of a mish-mash. So you still have a ton of different types of things to do - you have phone calls to make, people to talk to, you have tasks that are more urgent and less urgent, you have all kinds of errands, you have things that can only be done at work, you have things that can only be done at home, there are things that can only be done at a computer, or if you’re self-employed and have several projects on the go, you probably have at least a few different to-do items for each one of your projects in a week.

So there are a few simple ways you can organize your to-do list even further so that you can group like items together. So, first of all, you could try grouping things together based on where you need to be when you need to them. So if you have to do the laundry, that would be grouped under the category “Home” along with items like rotating yours’ or the kids’ seasonal wardrobes and pressure washing the deck and painting the trim. Or if you need to email a few people, that would go under the category “Computer” along with an article you need to write, or a Canva design you need to make, or checking your financial records. Or if you need to buy art supplies, hair ties, and new strings for your instrument, those would all be grouped together under “Errands” so that you can do as many errands as possible while you’re already out. So do you see how we’re grouping like items together according to where you need to be to do those things.

I think you get the idea. The main categories that people usually use are “At Work,” “At Home,” “Computer,” “Phone,” “Errands,” and “Conversations to Have.”

Now, for me, I work mostly from home, so the At Work / At Home distinction is pretty much non existent. Also, I have constant access to my computer and my phone, so these distinctions aren’t necessarily the most helpful for people that might be in a situation that’s similar to mine. So basically what I found was that my situation made these traditional categories mostly useless to work from. So I adapted the idea to instead list my Projects instead of my different locations. So I have my 3 major projects listed as my categories - so, my 3 major projects are A Little Bit Unstoppable, Daily Breadth, and Calcedon - so that I group To-Do items under those projects. And then I can easily, at a glance see what needs to be done on each of those projects every week. And it also helps me make sure I’m at least one step forward in each of those projects every single week. And then I keep the categories that actually do make sense for my life - like “Errands," and “Conversations to Have,” and I’ve adapted the “Home” category to just become “Family” to hold all my family responsibilities.

So play around with categorizing your To-Do list even further so that it takes less brain power to look at it and decide what you have the equipment and the capacity to do right now in this moment.

Another categorization that I have played around with is Eisenhower’s Matrix. You’ve almost certainly seen it before even if you didn’t know what it’s called. I pull this little trick out of my pocket whenever I am in a particularly busy season and I’m having trouble sorting out which things I should do first. So, Eisenhower’s Matrix is essentially a sheet of paper, split down the middle lengthwise and crosswise to create four quadrants. And each quadrant is labeled as either important/not important or urgent/not urgent. So the Top Left quadrant would be labeled “Important. & Urgent.” These are the things you really should do before you do everything else. They’re important to you, they’re important to your work, your family, or your vision, and they’re also urgent! So get them done. The Bottom Left is labeled “Not Important But Urgent.” These are the sneaky things that lap up way too much of our time. They’re not important to you, they’re not important to your work, your family, or your vision, but for some reason, it’s just a really urgent task. This is what it looks like when you’re “putting out fires.” And so many people get caught in this trap of just putting out fires day after day! You can easily spend whole days doing only things in this category, especially if you’re on this treadmill of people pleasing. And since these items are urgent, they do need to be done, but don’t aim for A+ work here. Aim to be a C student of this particular category. Set a time limit and do as much as you can before cutting yourself off to work on other things or else these tasks will suck up your whole day. The Top Right quadrant is labeled “Important But Not Urgent.” This is one of those categories that often gets neglected. These are things that are really important to you, but they don’t need to be done right now! Try to do at least one thing from this list every single day. Even better, block off an hour or more each day just to work on these items. They will make the biggest difference in your life. Because the important things are rarely urgent, so you’ll have to consciously set aside time to work on these things or they will never get done. The final quadrant is the Bottom Right. This is labeled “Not Important/Not Urgent.” This basically is the delete or defer quadrant. If it’s not important to you and it doesn’t need to be done, don’t do it unless you happen to have the time and energy to knock a couple things off this quadrant at the end of the day. But again, don’t aim to be an A+ student here. Go for C work at the most.

I don’t personally use Eisenhower’s Matrix on an ongoing basis because I usually have enough of a handle on my time and projects that the urgency of to-do items isn’t usually a huge issue for me. But in those times when I’m feeling things piling up, and multiple things are competing for action right now - that’s when I pull out my Eisenhower’s Matrix to help me decide what to do first and what quality of work I’m going to dedicate to every task and to make sure that I’m still always moving forward on those things that matter most to me. That I’m spending most of my day in the top half of the page - the Important/Urgent or the Important/Not Urgent.

I have so much more to say on the topic of To-Do lists and how to get them working powerfully for you! So, I’m going to be hosting two free workshops in about two weeks time, and I would just love to see you there. If you want to learn more, mark two dates off on your calendar. The first date June 13 and the second date is June 15. On June 13 I’ll be leading a workshop called Setting Goals that Stick. The workshop will be jam packed with valuable, actionable content on goal setting and habit hacking. And a huge part of setting goals that stick is mastering the day to day of what you actually do to work toward that goal each and every day. I want you to stop making and abandoning the same goals over and over again. But instead, make a better goal and stick with that goal this time.

Then on June 15, I’ll be leading a workshop on Decluttering your Purpose. This dovetails beautifully with the goal setting workshop because having a well-defined vision that captivates your imagination is a huge part of setting goals that you actually are motivated to stick with. So I wanted to lead a full workshop to do a deep dive on that piece of the puzzle. And when your daily actions are powerfully aligned with an inspiring vision for your future, you will be A Little Bit Unstoppable. So, head over to briellegoheen.com/workshops and register to save your spot!

If you have any questions about what I’ve talked about today, about how to get your To-Do List working more powerfully for you, then feel free to head over to Instagram. My Instagram handle is @brielle.goheen and I would just love to connect with there. If you DM me, I’ll be sure to answer any questions that you might have. I want to see your to-do lists working for you. I want you to feel that feeling of accomplishment at the end of the week when you’re able to throw it away and know that you did the best job this week with the time that you had available for you that you possibly could have.

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Remember: the worlds we imagine are the worlds we build. So, ambitious creators, imagine something beautiful and take the next step - no matter how small - toward building it.