You can use the boxes either side of these two lists to colour code, rank or otherwise group and organise the items to help you get them done in the right order or at the most effective time.

It doesn’t need to be in your must dos list in order to get it done today if you have the time, but if you list too many there and don’t achieve them you will start to overwhelm and demotivate yourself. I’ve split the ‘to do list’ section of the list into the ‘must dos’ for the items you absolutely must get done that day and the ‘brain dump’ which is the leftovers from the long list.ĭon’t go overboard with the must dos even if they are fairly small items. Once you have this long list you need to transition it into your daily planner. This will leave you with a ‘long list’ that you need to craft into an actual to do list for the day. Start your day with a scrap piece of paper and do your initial ‘brain dump’ onto the page- everything you need to get done, big and small. You can download the pdf to print for your own use here: Think on Paper to do list.

Here’s what I’ve created and I’ll explain how it works below. Having looked for a suitable to do list to use in my daily life I decided to create my own so that it would fit exactly what I needed.

I have found that the biggest hurdle is striking the balance between capturing everything you need to do so that you can get it all out of your head onto paper and having a list you can actually work from.įor this reason I’m a big fan of creating one big ‘brain dump’ and then going back to rank and highlight items to make clear what order they should be completed in and what you should tackle on which day. Since then I’ve been experimenting with various formats of to do lists in my work and personal life to find the most effective way of capturing information and getting things done. That post focused on how to write items on the list to make sure they’re actionable, that you’re capturing an appropriate amount of detail in your list and that you’re using a consistent, reliable system. I’ve previously written about how to make an effective to do list, which you can read about here.

Daily todo