In the first of a series on ‘getting organised’ (just in time for end of year assessments and state exams!), Robin gives a practical step-by-step approach on making the most of to-do lists.
To-do lists: the first step to an organised life. You know ‘em, you love ‘em (and if you don’t already, you will by the end of this article). They are essential to any student, as when the homework and extra curricular activities begin to pile up, you have a way to fight back and get the best out of the measly 168 hours in a week. It sounds like a lot, but us students know that it most certainly isn’t – not unless you have a plan, which is exactly what to-do lists help us achieve.
Ok, I know that sounds like the most obvious thing to do with a to-do list, but hear me out: you have a lot on your plate, and a lot to do, but if you just think about what you want to do, it all gets jumbled up, and you can’t sift out the urgent tasks from the not-so-urgent. At the same time, if you start writing a to-do list by skipping to the third step you won’t know what needs priority over what, which will cause you to end up worse off than before. Write down everything you need to do in no apparent order, or just scribble ideas around your page: just get everything down there. Then you can move on to:
So, you have your list. It is messy, with ideas scrawled in no apparent order – good. Don’t worry, it won’t stay that way for long. Take a look at this list. What sort of things have you put down? Chances are, you’ve written something vague or non-specific. To do list items like ‘do homework’ or ‘write school newspaper article’ may seem fine, but they are not specific, and don’t motivate us. Change ‘do homework’ to ‘solve maths equations’ and ‘write English essay’ (or whatever homework you have). This makes it clearer what needs to be done, and makes the next step a lot easier.
Get out those highlighters, because we are prioritising! Pick one colour to represent ‘urgent’, one colour to represent ‘important’ and then a last colour to represent ‘minor’. Go through each of your items and start prioritising. Your urgent items should include things that have a set deadline (such as that English essay) and time-sensitive items. Your ‘important’ items are not time sensitive. They need to get done but not right now (that piano recital you need to learn a piece for). ‘Minor’ items are important items to you, but don’t need to get done (like finishing that short story).
Now you have prioritised your list, it still might be quite long. So as not to overwhelm yourself, make a ‘to-do today’ list, with 3-5 items on it. Pick these items from your urgent to-do list. If you have more than 5 urgent things on your list that need doing RIGHT NOW, just focus on five for the moment, and the most urgent 5. That way you won’t despair when looking at all the things you need to do. If I only have two to three items on my ‘urgent’ list I will pick one or two items from my ‘important’ list. Work your way through the lists, and only look at five (or less) items at a time.
Don’t multitask. Our brains can’t handle more than one thing at a time – it already breathes, digests and generally functions – so give it a break. Focus on one thing at a time.
Now, go forth and to-do list! I wish you luck.