How many times a day do you look at your todo list?
Ideally, your list should always be at the center of your daily productivity.
To maximize your efforts, you should check it at least three times per day.
Making Lists But Not Looking at Them
Do you make lists, but then never look at them?
Like many, you probably find old lists around your desk that were randomly scribbled on Post-Its, pads of paper, and the like.
What happened to these lists?
You probably didn’t accomplish the tasks on these lists, especially since you never looked at them again.
“For your todo list to be effective, you should check it three times a day.” (Tweet Quote)
If you want your list to be an effective tool in your time management toolkit, you need to actually use it.
You need to keep it visible and check it at least three times a day.
Three Times to Check Your Checklist
You should check your list a minimum of three times a day.
These checkpoints with your checklist will ensure that you are working on your top priorities and recall all tasks that need to be done.
If you find yourself forgetting to review your list, try setting alerts to remind you to take time out to reference it.
Here are the Three Times a Day You Should Check Your List:
- Start Your Day by Planning – The best time to look at your list is first thing in the morning. Get tasks out-of-your-head and on to your list. Plan your day and determine what your top tasks will be. Schedule appointments with your toughest tasks to ensure that you have time to do them during the day.
- Make a Midday Course Correction – By midday, chances are you have been interrupted or taken off track by the urgent issues of the day. As well, you might have forgotten some of the items you were to accomplish today. Checking your list at midday allows you to course correct your efforts. You may need to re-direct your actions to ensure you are working on your tops tasks.
- Wrap-up Before the End of the Workday – The last time you need to look at your list is before the end of your workday. The important distinction here is that it should be before the end of your workday, not the end of the day before you go to bed. This is your chance to let your list remind you of any tasks you have forgotten, and yet still give you time to address them.
Let Your List Work For You
Checking your list regularly may seem like an elementary strategy.
Yet, many people will go the entire day without checking their list.
Tasks become forgotten and priorities get overridden.
So, keep your list front-and-center and refer to it at least three times a day.
Let it guide your day, remind you of forgotten tasks, and keep your priorities on track.
Question: Do you have set times that you check your list throughout the day? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
With a ton of mobile apps out there for Calendar and todo lists, there really isn’t much of an excuse to not check it at least once a day. Though I find that todo lists aren’t as effective unless they’re listed as appointments on a calendar.
Calendars are a huge help. Having a written to do list is only one step away from having a mental list. Having a calendar with scheduled time for each item gives you a game plan to work from. Time constraints can often increase productivity as well.
Nowadays, we are busier than ever before. Technology constantly gives us more tools that are supposed to manage our lives, still we just seem to have more and more to do, and less time to do it. Being productive is using our time to achieve what is important for us, while being busy just means to fill our time with as much as possible.
Personally, I use Replicon’s time recording software ( http://www.replicon.com/olp/online-time-recording-software.aspx ) to manage my tasks and time. I analyzed all the features and picked this software. Since then it is the go-to application whenever I need reports or get status information on the ongoing processes.