If you’re anything like me you have a never-ending list of to do items, doomed to always be searching for the best system to feel on top of your game. On top of the to do list. You’re trying to do the mission impossiblé. No matter how hard you try, or how many times you re-calibrate to get back on track and kill the task list, somehow you always seem to end up in the same place: Overwhelmed, tired, and run-down by your own system. In this post I present how I went from this, to finally being proud over my accomplishments each day, as well as having a backup in place to reset when the overwhelm comes creeping back up on me.
Why the traditional task system doesn’t work for us
In my strategic brain, a running task list of everything that needs to get done is as simple as that. You find a way to organize it according to your preferences, and then you just take one task at a time and complete it. In reality though, it’s never like that. Executive dysfunction will strike. Overwhelm will kick in when I realize how much is left to be done, but I have no idea when I’ll get back my mojo and get to it.
Without having some key psychological tricks prepared, your to do list can easily go from being the simplest plan in the world, to the biggest block you have in your way. It’ll create
- overwhelm and the feeling of loss of control when you can’t stay on top of your plan, and
- disappointment for the same reason.
- A never-ending loop of new tasks that piles up during low cognitive periods, with
- no clear priorities to show you what’s actually important – which throws you back into list item number one: Overwhelm.
The road I took to figure out an alternative
It took a good long while before I accepted the fact that I needed to get rid of any notion of having a to do list. Fortunately I had a supporting environment, so the change that needed to happen was all in my own head. I wanted to contribute, I wanted to help, I wanted to matter. It didn’t matter what I wanted though, as I’d never recover from the burnout if I kept sticking to these self-imposed “musts”.
It isn’t something that just goes away, it’s something that needs to be actively pursued every day – the letting go of the to do list, that is. This is what you’ll also have to keep in mind going forward with this new approach to a task system: Some steps will feel counter-intuitive to you, and these steps will need to be actively pursued to make the system work for you and not fall apart when you need it the most.
When I finally was ready to start having some small responsibilities again, I knew I couldn’t start with everything all at once (I really wanted to though!). I also knew that if I were to build a sustainable life, I had to get my routines in place to create healthy habits. So the method of choice were to start with one, only one, routine task, and dedicate myself to completing this task every single day.
That first commitment took a couple of weeks to feel comfortable with, but after that I started stacking other small habits pretty quickly. Soon enough, I was ready to start dealing with the heavy duty machinery: The real to do items.
Previously I used a Notion board for my set up. It worked well enough, but it’d be totally wrong for me in this era. I actually deleted everything I had in Notion and started fresh with a blank page. Now there was no chance of going back to the old ways and getting stuck in overwhelm again!
I figured the system needed a few things for it to be sustainable and simple enough to use on a daily basis. It needed to be easy to overview (keeping tabs, links and buttons to a minimum), easy to add new tasks to (I mostly use my phone, but sometimes I’d need to insert notes from other sources too), give a clear view of priorities (making it up on the go craves unnecessary cognitive power from all of us, even for those of you who are more gifted in this area), and leave no trace of disappointment when things don’t go as planned (life will happen, even on the most productive days).
This is how I ended up with the perfect system:
Using ABC priorities
The A priority
This is the most important task for the day. If everything else falls apart today, say you needed to rush to the hospital all of a sudden – completing this task will still have made it a successful day. Only critical tasks will be of A priority. Be brave, and commit to only having ONE A task for each day.
Probably over-redundant to say, but this is the task you start your day with. As it’s the only task of immediate importance, you wouldn’t want to push it to the end of the day and risk not being able to complete it.
In my Notion board, the A tasks are color coded to let my brain know without any effort that “this is what I’ve decided to focus my attention on today”.
The B priority
Everything else that you deem as important falls under the B priority. When the A task is done, you start picking from your B’s.
You’ll create a list of B tasks that will be used both on a daily and on a weekly basis. I prefer to plan each day on the evening before, but before each new week I’ll go through and add everything non-negotiable to the calendar. Some tasks will get scheduled to a particular day, and they all stay at a B level up until the day before when I choose my A task. Everything that’s still a B is fully mobile and can get re-scheduled without regrets. So this is my hybrid, but in order to come up with your own version, I suggest you start with this approach:
- If you only have a few things you want to get done every day: Use a daily B task list and schedule all tasks to their designated date of completion.
- If you tend to over-stack your to do’s: Only use a weekly B task list in the beginning, and pick one new B task at a time only once you’ve finished what you were working on before.
Lastly, the C priority
If all of your B’s are done, you’re now welcome to approach the C tasks. (Although I’ll admit that I also use this category for evenings when I have low mental capacity but still have a little energy left and want to do something simple.)
The C tasks are only categorized by week, or even longer. Plan for the week, and be prepared to move some things to the next week if, by the end of the week, there are still tasks left that you didn’t have time or energy to complete.
How I organize my tasks
Weekly planning session
Every Saturday I’ll schedule time with myself to sit down and plan next weeks schedule:
- Checking my Google calendar for events and other things that I want to populate my to do list with.
- Adding some routine tasks (eg. the next weeks household admin block and grocery shopping day).
- Many routine tasks (like watering plants once a week, cleaning the bathroom once a week, etc.) I only keep as a task in my Google calendar, since they don’t take up much emotional bandwidth, and I already have the routine dialed in. These tasks are also fully OK to skip one week if I can’t complete them.
- Scanning through my Notion to do list (categorized by project) and picking out a few tasks that I feel are important to get on with during next week, then place them in the right priority.
- Going through the list each week will give you a good representation of what has been hanging on for too long, and if something needs to be dealt with, delegated or simply removed.
- I also mark any energy draining tasks with a warning symbol (⚠️), so that I’m fully aware of it and can prepare for that day by not scheduling too many other tasks, or by leaving room for recovery the following day(s).
- And then I declutter! I go through the task list categorized by project again, with the intent of removing anything that I’ve now realized I don’t need to do.
- Tasks that just lie there week after week – either they’re scary and you need to muster up the courage to just do them, or their not necessary at all (not even as a C-priority) and can go.
- You don’t need to act on every smart thought you have. It’s OK to let go of tasks that you once thought were important, but that’s now been time tested to show that they aren’t important – at least right now.
- If there’s something I actually want to keep, I mark the task with a “not today” category. This way it gets removed from my view, but once a month I can take a look into that category and see if there’s anything that I want to pull out. This category will also act as a second time tester. Sometimes it’s not easy knowing what’ll actually be important or not.
Daily planning the evening before
Each evening I’ll sit down with my to do list and just check where I’m at.
Did I get everything done today?
Will something need to be shuffled to another day? – Here I also ask myself why. If it wasn’t important enough, it should be in the B or C category. If I procrastinated, I need to check my mindset and focus on the work instead of the outcome to get it done the next time. And lastly, if I simply couldn’t make it, no need to think more about it. I did my critical A task, and that’s the only thing that matters.
Brain dump review
I use my task database as a brain dump collector also. Throughout the day I’ll add notes on thoughts I had, or tasks I want to do.
In the evening I make sure to empty this list (and all other places I may have stored notes) and sort everything to it’s right place. Tasks go to their appropriate project or date if applicable (they can also fall into the “not today” category, but I try to not do this as it can easily pile up into a massive junk drawer), and general thoughts can be transferred to a note instead. The only thing I’m trying to achieve here is to give everything either a home, or remove it right away because I’ve already realized that this was just a fun thought but nothing I need to act on (ie. it doesn’t align with my goals in life right now).
Also…
The brain tends to get going as we relax before going to sleep, so each morning I’m also checking in on my brain dumps (if any). I won’t do a thorough run down as in the evening, but I will check if there’s anything that I want to add to the days task list before I start my day.
The regular brain dump reviews are important to do this for two reasons:
- You’ll start trusting yourself that everything gets dealt with, which frees up space in your mind during the day.
- You can focus better on the tasks at hand because your brain isn’t busy trying to remember all of your smart thoughts.
Final thoughts (important!)
As I’ve been writing this blog post, I realize that an intricate step by step system like this is an awful way to go about make life calmer. Take it one thing at a time. The most important lesson here is to stick to only one critical task each day. Everything else is just a bonus that’ll make your life more streamlined – but only if it’s implemented in a calm and not perfectionistic way.
