I like making lists in order to get things out of my head. I use my calendar and to-do list all day, every day, or I would not know where to be and when. I jot a few things down as I think of them before bed and it helps me sleep better. Recently (and twice), my daughter has deleted my To Do list from my iPhone Notes page and I literally had no clue what to do. I refer back to it several times a day, adding and deleting and scheduling time to do some of those things. I just read this article from Real Simple about list-making. I think I may need a new system. I like David Allen’s productivity tips and I do process things as he recommends, I think, but I may need to reread his books. I have started e-mailing myself my list once a day, just so that I have a recent backup, because you know it’s going to be deleted again one of these days.
The items on my to-do list lately are all things for our new house – meeting times, necessary purchases, phone calls to make, mortgage and insurance documents; add to those any family-related tasks – grocery lists, doctor appointments, buying clothes, starting preschool, paperwork, laundry, play dates, cleaning, birthday parties and gifts, dance class, meals, etc. and the day-to-day list is psychologically overwhelming. Anything on the list that is fun for me like editing pictures or participating in a class is hard to get done sometimes.
What do you use to keep track of your to-dos?
I use my email inbox, combined with the calendar features of Entourage for time-specific to-dos.