GET (SH)IT DONE (how to clear your to-do list and feel good about it)
By: Jean-Marc M.
Tags: Productivity, Habit Building, To Do List, Procrastination, Working From Home

GET (SH)IT DONE (how to clear your to-do list and feel good about it)

Having a To-Do List is one important tool to plan out your tasks and actually progress by executing them. So it holds you accountable and makes sure that you are heading in the right direction. When the tasks are planned out wisely of course.

In the past I’ve done a lot of to-do lists in many different ways. I’ve made an own Excel sheet where I’ve written down all the tasks and routines from Monday to Sunday, I’ve bought a journal to plan out the To-Do’s, I’ve used apps like Trello to be more productive and many more. They all have had their own advantages and disadvantages. For example it hasn’t turned out for me to plan and check the tasks 100% digital. It’s way better for me to write them down with my hand and cross them with the same hand, too.

I’ve tried many things and made different experiences. So the decision has been easy to write a blog post about my learnings to inspire, help and motivate you to find your own way to get more things done and actually feel good about it because just crossing the tasks out of your list shouldn’t be the major goal. I will explain it during the post.

Learning #1 : Focus on the why behind your tasks instead of just checking them

When you have prior experience in working with To-Do Lists you may have came across this phenomenon. Your tasks are planned, you’ve executed them all and finally checked them all on your list. But you don’t feel too good about it and have a strange feeling in your gut. That’s what I’ve experienced very often, too. The problem here is that we tend to focus just on crossing the goal itself and not on the task. I’ll give you an easy example what I’ve struggled with many times.

I’m meditating on a constant basis for around 3 years now. So I’ve always thought it’s a good idea to write this on my to-do list because it’s part of my daily routine. Each morning I looked on my list, saw „Meditation (10 Minutes)“, executed and crossed it out. But each time I did it this way I felt that there was something missing. There was a feeling inside me that I didn’t meditated at all. Crossing it out of my list wasn’t a good feeling and I headed directly to the next task. So executing the tasks became a reactive habit which made me not really doing the tasks with full awareness.

That’s because I had just focused on the goal of crossing it out and not on the meditation instead. So I was checking and crossing the tasks all day but wasn’t even aware of them. It’s a trap where many of us fall in.

A great way to avoid this trap is asking yourself the following questions:

- Why am I doing this task?

- Why is it important to do it?

- What will be different when I’ve executed it?

- How will I come closer to my goal when I’ve finished the task?

- …

These questions help you to focus more on the task itself. It’s the same as for setting goals in life. Having a goal is crucial but the journey to reach that goal is where the main focus should be on.

To wrap it all up in one sentence: Having your tasks planned out is important, but keep in mind why you are actually doing them.

Learning #2: Visualization brings satisfaction

To have a To-Do list is one thing. Another thing is to visualize it. Visualizing your list has many positive effects.

The first effect is that it makes it obvious for you what you want to accomplish during the day, the week, the month or the year. You’re always reminded that you still want to do task XY and it won’t get accomplished by itself. It serves as a cue.

Another great effect of visualizing is that you can see and even feel what you are about to do and what you’ve done. For me it comes in very handy to have an overview of my tasks.

The most beneficial effect is the satisfying effect when you reward yourself visually. Crossing a task out or transferring it to the DONE-Section of your list is a great feeling of accomplishment when you take care of focusing on the why behind your task. It makes you feel that you successfully made another step towards your goal.

There are many great ways to visualize your To-Do list. The one that has turned for me is a very simple method from a fellow Web Developer named Chris Hufnagel who has inspired me. I’ve mounted a pin-board made of cork onto my wall and split it into two columns. In the left column are all my To-Do’s for the week and in the right will be the one’s I’ve done. When I’m planning out my week I’m writing all the important tasks on a piece of paper. I’ve categorized them into 3 major fields: Learning, Projects and Books. The more precisely the tasks are, the easier it is to accomplish them.

For example:

Books → Chapter 3, Chapter 4

Learning → Udemy-Course: Responsive-Design Section (and then finding subcategories for each video to make it more detailed)

Projects → Navigation-Bar of Website XY, centering all images, …

Once I’ve written them all down I start to put them on post it’s. I use a different color for each of the 3 fields. After that I just hang them into the left column (To-Do’s). For me it’s a great visual cue and it’s obvious what I want to do during the week. When I start to execute them I take them and put them on the bottom corner of my screen because it sometimes happens that I’m getting distracted. With the task sitting in front of me I always get reminded why I’m sitting down here. Once done I hang them into the right column (DONE) and it’s a great feeling.

Feel free to check my instagram (@jean_marc.dev) where I’m regularly posting my To-Do Lists.

Learning #3: Keep your list short and simple

Another major mistake I’ve always made was to overflow my lists. When I was sitting down at a Sunday afternoon and thought about my tasks for the week I felt bad or not enough when there were not many tasks in it. So I was trying to put a good bunch of tasks in it to let it look packed and full. I’ve always thought that this is the way to go and that this will motivate me. Okey, it did. For the Sunday evening.

The rough awakening often came on Monday when I’ve started to work on that list. There were so many things to do for the day and for the week that I’ve started to get overwhelmed because I couldn’t find any clue where to start. I’ve recognized very quickly that this definitely was not the way to go.

A full packed to do list may look nice because you get a feeling that you’re about to accomplish a lot. But reality often looks a little bit different. Life uses to get in the way, focusing on the less important tasks, …

Another thing I’ve done wrong is to underestimate the tasks and especially their required time. When I’ve couldn’t manage to do all tasks (which has happened most of the time) I’ve began to feel pretty bad about myself because I’ve thought that I haven’t accomplished not enough. This quickly led into a down spiral of being not good enough and demotivation.

So I’ve begun to reduce my To-Do list and to focus on the major tasks. With major tasks I mean those ones which are supporting your goals. Start with 1 or 2 during the week. When your major goal for the week is to read a book, focus on reading one hour, 30 pages or something similar which will allow you to reach your goal. You want to meditate each day? Great, focus on meditating for 10 minutes each day. That requires that you already know your goals and what you want to accomplish.

When it comes to writing your To-Do list always keep in mind if it’s not fitting onto a 3x3 post-it how will it fit into your day? That’s the hook which still reminds to not overflow my list when I’m planning it out.

Learning #4: Tackle the ones at first you want to do at least:

Let’s be honest. There will always be tasks on your list which you can’t wait to do and ones which you don’t want to do. That’s normal. In order to achieve greatness and success it’s important not only to do the things you want to do. The most important aspect is to execute the one’s which are necessary. And in this case there won’t always be only fun tasks. I can relate as well.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your past, too. You have a task which waits to be executed but you don’t want to do it at all and you don’t even find the motivation to start. Homework in school are a great example for this. So you tell yourself „Well, this evening I will go for it“, the evening occurs and nothing has changed. You still don’t want to do it. So you tell yourself again „Okey, now it’s too late for that. I will tackle this one right in the morning“. Guess what? The morning alarm turns on, you wake up and nothing has changed. You start procrastinating and it starts to become a habit. A bad one. Obviously.

A great way, that takes a bit of time and effort at the beginning, is to create a habit to execute the tasks you want to do at least right at first of your day. This concept is also known as „Eat that frog“ (great book by the way). It gives you a lot of energy through out the day when you’ve already done the less fun part. Now you have time for the tasks which are considered to be more fun. It helps you to kill procrastination and build self discipline.

Start here simple and small as well. Begin with simple and little tasks you feel lack of motivation. This could be answering emails, going to the dentist (oh we all love them, right?), tidying up your desk or decluttering your desktop.

When I’m planning out my tasks for the day I usually setting one task as my MIT (Most Important Task) and highlight it on my written list. In the next morning I immediately know what do to at first and finally start to execute it. It’s a great feeling to have this one already crossed out of my To-Do list and made room for my „fun“ tasks or those ones who are easier for me to do.

Learning #5: Always be kind and proud of yourself (don’t beat yourself up):

As I’ve already written in the first paragraph it’s very easy to get beaten up by ourselves. Especially in the ALWAYS HUSTLE work ethic of today’s society. But let’s face it. Life sometimes uses to get in the way and you’re not able to do all of your tasks. That’s another reason why keeping the list short and only with the major tasks is important.

There are good days and even bad days where you won’t get much done. That’s normal and it’s okey. The big difference here is how you’ll continue. When you’re beating yourself up with feeling not good enough and being a bad person, chances are high that you won’t continue with a good state of mind. The key here is working frequently on a daily basis.

When you know that you’ll get back to work tomorrow and see it as a new chance to get the things done you’d wish to it comes along with a whole new energy, right? I’m following the mantra „Missing a task once is okey, but missing it twice is the beginning of a new habit“. Fitness is a great example for this. When you go every day to work out one missed day won’t be bad. But missing another workout right ahead will raise the chances that you’ll miss it a third time.

It’s very crucial that you commit yourself to working frequently. Writing 50 words this evening is still better than writing nothing. Even if you fail to write anything at all, get back to it the next day.

That’s it. Those were my 5 top learnings I had to learn the hard way and still working on today. Feel free to share your own experiences with executing to do lists and concepts you got to know to be more productive.

We’ll see us in the next blog post. It made a lot of fun to write this one here.