Getting organized with a to-do list
Your mind is full of chores, errands and appointments. You always have the nagging feeling that you’re forgetting something, and you often do — from doctor’s appointments to birthday cards.
The solution may be to add one more task to your busy schedule — make a to-do list.
“It may seem counterintuitive,” says professional organizer Linda Birkinbine, owner of Keep it Organized LLC of Getzville. “But when you are so rushed, the best thing you can do is stop, take a breather and prioritize. You may find you can delegate some things, or that there are some things you don’t have to do at all.”
To-do lists take many forms, from the last-minute list that must be completed before a vacation begins, for example, to a wish list.
Jessica Griffin of Buffalo, who works full time in marketing and also attends grad school, wrote a “Summer To-Do List,” which she posted on her blog “Damsel in a Dress” (damseldressed. blogspot.com).
On her summer list, the 26- year-old wrote 13 things, ranging from “Doing up Niagara Falls like a tourist” and hitting the Bidwell farmers’ market and the Allentown Arts Festival.
But checking everything off wasn’t really the point of that list, she says. “It was a way to say there are plenty of things to do around here that are cheap, easy and fun.”
When to make a list
Most people start making lists when the number of things they have to do exceeds what they can easily remember.
“I started making to-do lists four or five years ago, after college, when I was getting into the work world, having to balance everything from work to school in life,” says Griffin.
Now Griffin says her lists are critical. “They keep me on balance, keep me on course.”
Birkinbine agrees. “I just love them. I don’t know how people survive without them.”
For her, lists accomplish many goals:
• If you write something down, “it is more likely to get done,” she says.
• Once a task is written down, you can forget about it — literally. “If you write it down and stop worrying about trying to remember it, you will sleep better,” says Birkinbine.
In her book, “To-do List: From buying milk to finding a soul mate, what our lists reveal about us,” Sasha Cagen writes, “For me and other daily listers, to-do lists are the way we move through the world.”
Cagen’s book includes copies of 100 lists submitted by visitors to her blog (todolistblog.com). The lists include everything from “get up” to “live in foreign country, learn language well enough to talk in bar with loud music.”
About 600 visitors to Cagen’s blog voiced their opinions on to-do lists:
• Eighty-four percent said women make more to-do lists than men.
• Eighty-nine percent enjoy making lists.
• Fourteen percent admit that their lists help them delay doing other things.
The life of a list
An organized to-do list can save both time and money.
“If you have a list to take to the grocery store, you won’t overbuy or have to make a return trip for something you’ve forgotten,” says Birkinbine.
Overbuying? It happens! Birkinbine says, “I had a client who had 15 bottles of shampoo and nine bottles of dishwashing liquid.”
To be efficient, Birkinbine groups tasks on her to-do lists “by category— e-mails to send, phone calls to make. I carry a small notebook in my purse with perforated pages. Then if I have any ‘found time’ — if I’m waiting in a line, I can write a quick note on one of the pages or make a quick call.”
Once everything you need to do in a day is listed, prioritizing is easy, Cagen said. “It’s easier to see which tasks are important and in what order to tackle them.”
Breaking a complicated, long-term project — whether it’s a house renovation or a plan to be happier — into small, easier steps can make it possible and provide a feeling of accomplishment, although the long-term goal may be far away.
“Lists are a great way to get you from Point A to Point B,” says Birkinbine. For her older daughter’s Sweet 16 party, “first we sat down and made a list: the theme, guest list, invitations, a cake, the menu. And the menu was a list within a list — where to get each item.”
Or a list can be for a period of time, such as a workweek or weekend.
“I like to do a little to-do list for errands and cleaning I have to get done on a Saturday,” says Griffin, “and whatever I don’t get done carries over to Sunday.”
Yes, the dreaded “carryover effect,” when something you should do — but really, really don’t want to — gets carried over from list to list when everything else is crossed out.
Birkinbine says a list-maker must take a close look at any task that is repeatedly carried over to new lists. “Either you don’t need to or don’t want to do them,” she says.
Paper or ’puter?
People have the option today of electronic lists, kept on a cell phone, PDA or computer, or classic paper lists, kept in a bound notebooks or on loose pages, Post-its or scraps.
Eighty-nine percent of the people responding to the question on Cagen’s blog said they prefer writing lists on paper.
For Birkinbine, the answer is both.
“I like electronic lists because you can integrate them with a calendar or easily bump something from day to day if it doesn’t get done.”
A computer is the best place to keep recurring lists, such as birthdays and anniversaries.
But for portability and accessibility, a paper list is perfect. Speed counts, too. “It’s sometimes faster to write a to-do list on paper,” Birkinbine says.
Here’s another time-saving tip — lists don’t have to start from scratch every time.
Most households need the same staples. A premade disaster emergency list — check out ready.gov for one — can contain entries you would never have thought of.
Even your own list can be photocopied and used again.
No matter whether the list is on paper or a screen, the pleasure of completing a task is equaled only by the joy of crossing it off.
“It gives you such a feeling of accomplishment,” Birkinbine says.
