I know my own job.”īut there are so many more tasks that go into a project, by David Allen's Getting Things Done terms, than we realize before we actually sit down and think about it.Īt work, I’m involved in writing, editing, formatting, and promoting blog posts. You may look at that vague to-do list Wednesday morning and see things like “prescription” and “blog post,” but forget the details. Oooh, if only Future Us had the memory we always assume it does. Since it's all top of mind then, you look at the vague terms and know what they mean.Īnd you make the mistake of thinking that will always be the case. Let’s say you created a task list for your week on Sunday night using a bigger version of that lackluster, verbless first to-do list.
Why Verby To-Do Lists Are More Actionable & Effective They offer more clarity Without verbs, your to-do list is a vague list of things that your brain doesn't know what to do with, not tasks it knows need be completed. How much clearer, simpler, and more manageable the second daily to-do list looked? Now let's try a version of that to-do list with a verb for each item: It’s how actionable your tasks are, and that happens through using verbs in each and every task on your task list. So the secret to an effective to-do list isn’t about what app you use, or what morning or evening routine you write it during. If you’ll please flash back to elementary school with me for a quick sec, you’ll recall that verbs describe actions…things that you DO. So, what makes a good to-do list? How to Write an Effective To-Do List The estimate I like to give people is that every minute you spend planning can save 5-10 minutes on the doing. So it’s totally worth taking the extra minute or two (seriously, it’s not much time) to create a more effective to-do list.
Your to-do list is your instruction manual for the day.Īnd we all know what it’s like to put together furniture with a confusing manual (side-eying the shoddily put together IKEA bookshelf next to me 👀). To keep it brief and simple.īecause the less time you spend planning, the more time you can spend doing, right? WRONG. I understand the desire to spend as little time as possible writing your to-do list. You can read all the lifehack and productivity articles in the world about the "best tool" for your to-do list, but no productivity app will fix not knowing how to write an effective to-do list in the first place.
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