The art of making to do list with notepad

There is no better feeling than hooking a completed project in your to-do list. Mission accomplished! However, you can easily mix up a day/week without subtracting any completed projects from your list. To-do list can be a guide for your work, or it can be a proof of mocking you in vain. It depends on how you formulate it.

Please treat your to-do list as a bunch of boss orders, and you are the boss and you are also your own subordinate. Just like a computer program, if the instructions are clear or easy to execute, you can deal with it calmly. If this is not the case, you will get unwanted results-such as fear, procrastination and low self-esteem. Today, I will give you some tips for formulating a to-do list so that you can easily complete the items in your list.

Every working day, you have two modes: thinking mode (at this time you are the identity of the boss); execution mode (at this time you are the identity of the assistant). When a task or plan appears and you are thinking about how to start doing things, you are the thinking mode/boss mode-you are the person who sends the order. Your to-do list is a collection of these instructions, and your subordinates (you in execution mode) will execute these instructions later.

So, how do you make the task you set feasible? Before you add a new task to the to-do list, stop first and use the following methods to guide you to think again.

Break it down-the best way to avoid making your plan a disaster is to break it down. Use "next step" throughout the entire plan-if you have a legendary plan composed of multiple actions, make the list coherent and always have the next action. When an action is complete, review your list and add an action. Describe the action more concretely-when you tell yourself to do something, treat it as a command. Keep your to-do list as short as possible—just like you don't like to go to a mailbox with 2386 unread emails. No one likes to have a never-ending to-do list, it will completely overwhelm you, like the end of an aisle without light. Let the to-do list be updated-when my to-do-list has only about 20 items, they will be updated every day.

Distribute priorities reasonably-when there are 20 items on your to do list, you can only complete a few of them in a day. So, find out those tasks that should stay at the top of your list. How you sort depends on what tool or software you use to record your to-do list, but in any case, you must let yourself know which action should be next.

Clear just like you should know which task you should complete first, you must also know which task has been in your list for the longest time. Maybe your current ability is not enough to complete this task, or you don't need to do this action at all. Sometimes deleting an item from your to-do list is better than hooking it, because it saves you time.

Write down the projects you have completed-just like a good subordinate, you must want to let your boss know how much you have done. Keep a record of your completed projects, so you can celebrate your efficiency in the future.