Mini-Lab: To-Do-Lists
Five experiments to help you organize your to-do list, focus on the task at hand, and get things done! To follow along in the Family Lab app, check it out for a free month trial at familylab.lovable.app.
Reels
Transcript:
Happy To-Dos-Day!
Years ago, I designated Tuesday as my day to power through my to-do list, starting with the things I least wanted to do, to fight procrastination. I picked Tuesdays because Monday was a recovery day from the weekend, which I designated Muck-out Monday because I like alliteration and naming things. Then Tuesday naturally became To-dos-day because that’s also fun to say.
Today’s mini episode is all about to-do lists. I’m going to share 5 experiments that you can try to help you get things done.
First of all, I want to talk about how I’ve come to think about To-Do lists. If you’re watching the video version of this, I’ll follow along in my app, so you can see how it works there. First of all, I think of tasks in two categories: I think of one-off tasks as to-dos, and repeating tasks as routines. This makes a big difference, because once you set up and list your routines, you don’t have to keep those in your brain. You can just refer to your written routines and know what to do any given day.
The same thing goes for your running To-Do list. The goal is to get those tasks out of your brain and onto paper or a computer, so they’re not just swirling around and adding to your mental load. Sure they still take up brain space because you know you have to do them, but at least you don’t have to remember them as well.
Now for our first experiment: Make a Today list.
In my app, I have three main lists: Today, To-Do and Ta-Da. The today list is just the things you have to do today. I like to keep a separate To-Do list for future tasks, so your daily list isn’t too overwhelming. I always start by just thinking of my top three things to do each day—the biggest priorities. Like if nothing else gets done, I have to do these three things. That could be as simple as making dinner. Or getting a load of laundry done. Or doing the next step of a work project. Then you can list other tasks that you’d like to get done today.
After that, write down the daily and weekly routines that you have planned to do today. Like if you always wash a load of towels on Tuesday, write that in your routine list. If you’re using my app these will auto-populate once you enter them once.
The last list is the Ta-Da list, which can be as simple as crossing off or checking the items from your list as you finish them. In the app, once you finish a task, it goes into a separate Ta-Da list, so you can see what you have accomplished over the whole week. It’s amazing how the little things add up and voila! Look what you did today!
Experiment two is a categorized brain-dump.
Choose just one home management department or category and do a brain dump of all the things you need to do. I’ll use Facilities as my example, because I have a lot of home improvement projects I need to do.
I’ll start with routines. Some of the things on that list are monthly: change air filters, yearly: turn sprinklers on, and turn sprinklers off, clean out dryer vent, change smoke detector batteries, etc.
My to-do list is much longer: get a new garage door, have the electrical panel fixed. Order three new ceiling fans, patch holes and paint, get a new stove, etc. Just get it all down, even the little things that are not a high priority. Once you do, you can take it an extra step and prioritize them and assign due dates to each item. Again, this is really easy to do on the app, and the tasks will automatically appear in your today list on the day they’re due.
Experiment 3: One-item to-do list
Another totally different approach to a to-do list is to just add one item at a time. I do this whenever I’m overwhelmed and just paralyzed by the size of my to-do list. I just think about one baby step I can do, write it on a piece of paper. I do that one thing, and think of the next small thing I can do, write it down, and cross it off. This keeps me focused on doing just that one thing, and I can make some progress.
Experiment 4: To-dos-day
This one is simple. Just pick one day of the week and just power through as many to-do items as you can. For efficiency, you may want to group your to-dos by context. Like first, load up your car with everything you need to run all your errands. Amazon returns, library books, shopping bags, that pan your friend left at your house, etc. In my app, you can organize the to-do list by context, so you can see all of the phone calls you need to make, the computer work, the errands, etc.
Experiment 5: Rewards/Celebrations
Plan little rewards for every to-do item you cross off. For me, that’s often getting to read a chapter of my book, playing a song on the piano, or eating a little treat after every task. Pick something that will motivate you and treat yourself.
