To-Do List Help

I believe I have blogged here before about my love/hate relationship with my to-do list.

Basically I love having a place to keep track of the things I need to do and I love checking things off the list.

But, I do NOT love that my list seems to go something like this:  scratch 2 things off, add 4 things, accomplish 1 thing, add 3 things. . . 

You see how this is going.

I could have the most productive day but still end it with 12 more items on my list than when the day began.  Really, can you see how a girl might just want to give up?!!

Sometimes it was so frustrating I just stopped looking at the list.  I'd just keep it all in my head, but then there was the nagging fear that I was forgetting something important!

The last few months, I have found a system that has helped my sanity.  In reality it is just mind games to help me feel more productive, but it works!

Here's what I do:

I have a 3 different lists I keep in the "Reminders" app of my phone.  

One is a "Big To-Do List" where everything I need to do goes once I realize I need to do it.  These are both immediate and future to-do items.  This list is infinity long.

The 2nd is called "Today" and that is where I pick out a few manageable items from the Big To-Do List that I need to do today and can actually realistically accomplish today.

 

The 3rd list is called "Tomorrow" and as I am living today, I can move things to "Tomorrow" if they are just not going to fit today or if I think of something from the Big To-Do List that I really must get to tomorrow.  At the end of the day, the "Tomorrow" items get moved to "Today"

The beauty of all of this is really the feeling of actually finishing a to-do list which never happens with my big list but occasionally happens with my "Today" list!  Plus it keeps me more focused and a bit less overwhelmed.

How do you manage the ever-growing to-do lists of your life?

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.