The KEY To Sticking To My To-Do Lists
Do you feel like you always have five ongoing to-do lists in your head at once? But find yourself overwhelmed by planners that are too detailed or not detailed enough? Me, too. I’ve been stuck in this loop for years, constantly trying something new for planning my days and weeks.
I always end up with a planner, a few sticky notes, and some random to-do lists in my phone notes app, many times repeating tasks and lists ending up being disorganized. I couldn’t seem to keep all of my thoughts in one place without becoming overwhelmed with it all being in on a single page, or feeling like I’m missing something I should be prioritizing. I have ADD/ADHD and it is hard enough feeling like I have countless ideas, tasks, and future projects floating in my head, not to mention being a mom seeming to amplify this affect.
But I think I finally cracked the code.
Notion has changed the game for me. It’s a free (for personal use) online platform that you can build a project management (or, life/work management) dashboard for yourself. I made a template, that I JUST listed to Etsy, if you want it too! that has been SO helpful in every area of life. It has cured my chronic sticky and iPhone notes problem.
It’s split up by days or the week in the middle column and projects on the right. What is great about this, is it allows me to keep tasks day-specific, rather than seeing one ongoing list. If I know of a work project that has eight tasks in it that I have to do in the next week, I can use one of my Projects dropdown to put all of the to-do’s for the project inside. Then, I can put each day-specific one that I get to, in that day. It has helped me so much to stick on one task at a time, rather than becoming overwhelmed with the bigger picture of a project all at once.
Inside each day’s list, I have my lists in three groups: Work, Biz (side hustle, website updates, etc), and personal. Whatever I don’t finish that day, I can simply paste into the next day of the week.
As the day goes on, I have those moments where I randomly think of a task I have to do, whether work or home related. I have a specific spot for each category that comes up, including a home list with to-do’s around the house: like paying a medical bill, sending a form for something, buying a plant for the backyard, etc. These usually aren’t as time-sensitive, but I still want to keep track of them for when I have time. I can easily group those in a Project dropdown to keep tabs on what comes to mind, while not having to stare at what feels like an impending list all the time.
It has helped me SO MUCH! Mainly because, I have a lot of things that come to mind throughout the day that I can now brain dump in a place that makes sense, right when I think about it, so I don’t have to fixate on it. No more single-note-forever-long lists that have no rhyme or reason that easily get lost. I can simply brain dump a thought in it’s specific project or day to-do list that it’s due on and move on.
For day overviews, I also have this layout where I can time-block my day. This is great for meetings, social plans, and for any hours I want to use to batch some of my to-do’s. On the left-hand column, I added a quick spot for meal planning. You could easily add in a list similar right below for workouts for the week, and one of the Projects dropdowns on the right hand side for a grocery list, if you wanted. Lastly, I have a habit tracker on the right to keep accountable with the morning and night routines I want to be consistent with! It’s all on one page, that’s very easy to digest and open up whatever list you need at that time. *chef’s kiss*
It also has a calendar view, and list view for to-do lists if your brain works that way! I mostly use this calendar feature for trips and social plans, but this really comes down to whatever you want it to be used for. I personally spend Friday planning out my following work week, and Sunday planning out our personal life plans and grocery/workout lists for the next week. It has made habit tracking, goal tracking, and task tracking SO easy and digestible for me! I would highly recommend testing it out to see if it works with your brain the same way it helps mine. Enjoy!
