Free Day Time Management, or My List of Lists

Days off are precious. I'm sure you've experienced both the joy of getting a lot done in a day and the disappointment that comes after precious free time is frittered away. Though lots of issues factor into it, one of the biggest difference-makers in a day is: preparing a to-do list the night before.

I keep my to-do lists on the "Reminders" app on my iPhone, for several reasons. You always have the lists with you, you can move items between lists and up and down within a list, you can set alerts, and you can share lists. Here is my current list of to-do lists:

The top three lists are what I use 80% of the time. I used to have a "Today," "Soon," and "Sometime" system, which I had read was supposed to optimize my prioritization of tasks. But I found that the few items in the "Sometime" list would languish for years without any action, so I eventually realized it was pointless and deleted it. In its place, I expanded the "Soon" list to those which I need a computer (or smartphone) to accomplish ("Soon- computer") and those which are more physical in nature ("Soon- physical"). This innovation has made it so much easier to prioritize tasks. If I plan to be in front of the computer the next day, I'll move a lot of the "Soon- computer" tasks over to "Today," whereas if I'm going to be outside or bustling around the house, I'll shift over the more urgent and important tasks from "Soon- physical." Here's what my "Today" list looked like last night after I set it up for the morning:

Arranging the items in the order I plan to do them is a big help. I also get a nice little rush after I finish a task and swipe left, erasing the task for all eternity. After roughly adhering to my plan this morning, I've already knocked out most of the top half of the list, and it's only 11AM! 

I also occasionally look down the list of lists to my "House- spring" list, which has gradually grown over the course of the long Boone winter. I have several other lists where I can dump creative ideas, new goals, short-term purchases like cheese, and long-term items like a wetsuit. These are nice because you don't have to worry about remembering and possibly forgetting the things you will need to know months down the road.

Now it's time to offer a few caveats: 

1. Phones have the downside of being a distractor if you are in a focused block of time ("FBOT" in the get things done ["GTD"] lingo). We should place our phone in airplane mode if we really want to get something done with complete focus.
2. An excessive focus on to-do lists can result in a transactional view of relationships and a lack of presence / momentary awareness / mindfulness. Although it is crippling to not have a plan, obsessively dwelling on our personal docket will hobble our experience of joy.
3. Do not let the satisfaction of setting up a perfect to-do list interfere with the actual doing! Be aware that humans get a hit of dopamine when we imagine the completion of a task, and this can result in less drive to get off our keister and actually do the thing.

So fire up that phone, make some lists... then put it away, get busy, and say yes to life!