The Importance of Writing Down Weekly and Daily To-do Lists
Everything that seems daunting, or even impossible can be achieved by working towards it gradually. If you have run more than a few miles before, you likely understand why you need to adjust the pace of your steps. Runners who run fast at the beginning of the race will feel tired long before they reach the finish line. This same principle applies when trying to get any work done. One effective solution to organizing your work is writing down weekly and daily to-do lists.
Weekly or daily to-do lists:
The principle behind how to write down weekly and daily to-do lists is easy:
- Write a list at the end of the week of everything you want to accomplish.
- Write a list at the end of the day that contains minor tasks of that weekly list that you want to finish tomorrow.
After completing your daily list, put work aside, and enjoy the rest of the day while you are relaxed. After you finish your weekly to-do list, you are done with everything related to the tasks of the week. This means that if you're done by Thursday afternoon, you won't go back to work until Sunday morning.
Although this method may seem obvious, there are some major benefits to using the weekly and daily to-do list method.
Why are weekly and daily to-do lists important?
After using this method for many months, you will find that it is superior to other methods in some key matters, including:
1. writing down weekly and daily to-do lists helps you manage your energy:
The problem may not lie in the lack of time, but in the draining of energy. You have 24 hours a day, but most of that time is spent eating, sleeping, and relaxing after a few hours of hard work, in which case any production system that doesn't take that into account will fail.
Instead, divide your work by the weekly and daily to-do list method into manageable parts, and complete your daily list rather than trying to get everything done each day. The same goes for the whole week. With this method, you can get as much work done as possible while giving yourself time to relax and enjoy time away from work.
2. Procrastination prevents writing down weekly and daily to-do lists:
Procrastination can happen when you have a lot of work in your schedule. As a result, you will feel unable to finish your tasks easily. However, by dividing your to-do list into daily to-do lists, your duties will turn into small tasks.
3. Writing down weekly and daily to-do lists makes you proactive:
Adding the eleventh task for the day when you already have ten tasks on your to-do list doesn't sound like a good thing. However, when you write your weekly list, the way you think about it will be different. With six days to finish everything - assuming you take a day off - it's easier to get those important non-urgent tasks done.
4. Writing down weekly and daily to-do lists keep you from feeling overwhelmed:
Writing down weekly and daily to-do lists prevents you from feeling overwhelmed or stressed, as you can automatically divide your work into a set of weekly and daily tasks. Therefore, this will help you focus on your next task instead of working on all tasks at once.
How to use the weekly and daily to-do lists:
The title of this paragraph may seem self-explanatory. Write down your daily and weekly to-do list, get it done, and repeat it weekly. After using this method for a few months, there are a few simple things to think about, including:
1. Focus on your daily to-do list:
The objective of the weekly list is to serve as the starting point for writing your daily to-do list. After you decide what task you want to work on tomorrow, you shouldn't have to think about the other tasks of the week. You can pretend they don't exist, as if the only tasks in the world are tomorrow's tasks.
This technique helps relieve stress. It's easy to worry about how to get everything done, but when "everything" becomes tomorrow's task, it becomes easier for you to manage.
2. Don't add any new tasks to your to-do lists:
If you finish your daily and weekly to-do lists earlier than you expected, you might be tempted to add some extra tasks, right?
This is a bad idea because it prevents you from focusing on your daily list. Once you expand your list, you may not be able to complete your daily tasks, which increases your workload for the next day. As a result, your to-do list becomes infinite which will cause you to feel stressed as you will start to procrastinate.
Obviously, you'll have times when you have to make some adjustments, like adding a last-minute task to your lists. However, try to avoid expanding your lists just because you have some spare time.
3. Conduct a monthly review:
One of the things you often overlook when writing down weekly and daily to-do lists is the monthly list. There are some projects and activities that may be huge but not urgent. Therefore, there's no need to add it to your weekly list. Unfortunately, keeping a monthly list takes more effort than it's worth, and it's hard to anticipate all the minor tasks you'll need to get done a month ahead of schedule. So, it will not be correlated with your weekly lists.
Instead, do a regular monthly review, and pick out the major tasks you want to get done in that month—you can think about that when you write your weekly to-do lists.
In Conclusion:
Writing down your weekly and daily to-do lists is not a complicated process. Life must not be complicated in order to go on. Try to use the weekly and daily to-do list approach. You can make your lists with pen and paper, or any tool you prefer.