What Goes on a To Do List?

Jen Graham-Kizer recently interviewed me for an article she wrote about creating to do lists the night before. I love that she put my strategies to the test and shared what worked and what didn’t.

In her article, she summarized our brief chat about a friend of hers who put everything on her to-do list, right down to unloading the dishwasher. I immediately springboarded into sharing about over-planning.

Since I don’t have here the time constraints we had during our interview, I thought I’d unpack her friend’s situation a little more.

What should go on your to-do list?

That really depends on how you best operate.

Can you consistently finish everything you need to complete by listing just your “big ticket” items? If so, skip listing your normal routines and only put your “new” to do’s on your list.

But what if you need that feeling of success in order to stay motivated to continue plowing through your to do list? And what if you get that feeling of success not just from completing an action item, but also crossing it off your list? If that’s the case, list out all the action items you need to complete throughout the day, including household chores.

I used the phrase “going off the deep end” with Jen when I brought up the subject of over-planning. Is it possible to over-plan? Absolutely. Here’s an example:

You list out every moment of your day:                      vs  Condensing your actions:

wake up                                                                                   Morning routine

brush teeth                                                                               [work to-do’s]

10-minute stretching                                                               stop at grocery store

take a shower                                                                           dinner

get dressed                                                                               Evening kitchen routine

make coffee                                                                              check kids’ homework

eat breakfast                                                                             Evening routine

leave for work                                                                           laundry

drive to work

[work to do’s]

stop at grocery store

unload groceries

fix dinner

unload dishwasher

reload dishwasher

put away leftovers

make lunch for tomorrow

clean kitchen

check kids’ homework

do tomorrow’s to do list

put clothes in washer

transfer to dryer

brush teeth

choose next day’s outfit

go to bed

You can see how listing every moment of your day on your to-do list might take a lot more time than a condensed list. However, if making the longer list will help you be more productive, keep doing so, but with a template. Create a template that contains all of your daily routines and leave gaps for adding “that day” tasks. This will help you save time.

Another possible way you can over plan is by spending extra time fretting over the exact perfect order to complete everything in versus taking a quick educated guess. If you catch yourself thinking more than a couple of times, “Maybe if I did this after that instead,” while creating your list and definitely if you’re doing that for each item you list, you’re losing precious time to over-planning.

Hopefully that shines some light on what goes on a to do list. There’s no one perfect way to create a to do list, but there are ways to spend too much time on that process. While it’s important to plan, it’s equally important to not spend so much time planning that you have less time to complete what you need to get done.

For recommendations on to-do lists and other ways to improve time management, browse The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.