Making your Todo list work for you!

To-Do lists are part of our life.  Almost all of us use them.  But despite the availability of various tools and techniques, most of us have a limited success with them.  In this post, I will discuss a few ways to make it work for you!!

Keep it Simple and follow BPS!

I have used almost about 10 online To-Do lists over the last few years.  Here is the lesson I learnt from this experience.

Keep creating, using and maintaining the To-Do list, really simple

A normal human mind has an aversion for complexity in the long run.  Simplicity is good for everything and To-Do lists are no exception.

Here are some characteristics of a good To-Do list:

• Clean user interface
• Easy to manage tasks
• Easy to view the priority of tasks
• Quick to access and portable

I follow a simple technique to keep my list useful and effective: Bucketize, Prioritize, Sanitize (BPS) Cycle

#1 Bucketize

A bucket is a logical grouping of tasks.  Here is an example list of groups:

• Official
• Personal
• Follow Up
• Someday
• Urgent
• Unknown
• To be removed
• Problems and so on…

Whenever a new task comes up, the first thing I do is to find the right bucket.

#2 Prioritize

Then within the bucket, assign priorities to the task.  Use some color coding to make some tasks stand out, that are of very high priority

This way you ensure a very clear view of the tasks (by way of buckets) and the priorities they have

#3 Sanitize

Maintain the sanity of your list by periodically reviewing the tasks that are no longer valid.

I normally move them in to a bucket named “To be removed” and if it remains there after a while, I remove it.

Tools?

If you like the above technique, I suggest you two ways

1. Use TeuxDeux.  It is an excellent minimalist to-do management tool.  It inherently supports the concept of buckets and prioritizing tasks
2. Use Spreadsheets.  Highly cost effective and functionally supports all that we need

So what are you waiting for?  Go, refine the way you manage your to-do list and the make the most out of it.

Happy Productive day!!

Image credit: Flickr Creative Commons by Courtney Dirks