

When creating your to-do list, make sure your tasks are clearly defined. So there's no question that at 6:30 PM I need to catch my Bikram Yoga class. Instead of hoping and praying I hit the gym, I keep it scheduled in my to-do list the night before. I get ancillary benefits from this nightly pre-planning as well, such as sticking to my workouts more. It's a core component of my evening routine. Make the to-do list the night before.īefore I go to sleep, I'll write down all the tasks I'll be doing for the next day. This helps me recap if I've been productive or if I've been a lazy monkey. It also gives me a snapshot of the hours that I was most productive, so I can optimize my daily energy.Īt the end of the day, I write a quick summary (typically just a single sentence). This kicks me in the butt to get back on track if I realized I slacked off that hour. Super helpful.Īt the end of every hour, I write down what I accomplished. meeting with Noah at 2 p.m.) This really helps solidify in my head what my day is going to look like. On the top right, I write my scheduled meetings (ex. But I am cautious not to overload myself (six tasks maximum), or I know I won't finish. Here I write down the realistic amount of tasks I'll do. Sunday) as well, so my brain doesn't have to think what "October 7th" is. Here's a quick overview of how it all works:

digital to-do list apps always become more distracting than they help.Īnd speaking of how it works, I'll shut up now so you can see it in action. Because from my six years of to-do list system optimization (yes, I'm a freak). And I promise you'll be getting work done faster than using some fancy digital to-do list app.

Crazy.īut here's the crazier part - this system only requires pen and paper. Because they have been using it every single day. To this day, three years after introducing this system, I still have people thanking me for sharing it with them.

My friends passed it on to their friends, and before I knew it, I was introducing it to the masses (including the 700,000+ subscribers behind AppSumo). Progressively, this led to a to-do list system that has helped thousands of people.Ībout six years ago, I introduced this to-do list system to a few friends. So I kept experimenting with other people's methods until I said screw it, and created my own system. but I'm so scatterbrained that nothing worked. I tried every possible to-do list method to keep my brain from exploding. And I'm talking the trying-to-juggle-127-different-tasks-at-once type of busy.
