How to organize life. To-do list is the basis of the planner

"We create lists because we are afraid to die"
Umberto Eco

The popular philosopher and writer Umberto Eco took a special attitude to the lists of tasks, considering them the most important part of a person's life:

"Lists are a part of history, art and literature. The main purpose of culture is to explain eternity. A person perceives eternity and realizes the incomprehensible through lists."

In an interview for the popular German newspaper Spiegel, he says that to-do lists can be compared to relics of ancient civilizations and cultures. And despite all the simplicity, they have a very rich history. For a long period of time, the lists were not very popular because they "had some magic" and helped us understand what was happening around.

We make a list of purchases, future goals or accomplished facts, what we have seen, accumulated, viewed, listened to, and so on. This seemingly ordinary habit has become one of the most important in the lives of successful people.

We create lists of sights seen during the vacation, urgent cases accumulated, movies watched, music albums listened to, and even lists of necessary products. This very simple habit is one of the most important in the life of highly effective people.

"A person expresses the madness and ambiguity of life using structured recordings. Lists are a sign of a highly developed and cultured society. They give a person the opportunity to doubt the essential definitions."

To-do list

The task list is the basis of planning and it is a kind of guideline in planning any activity. And the main purpose of time management is that proper planning prevents poor performance.

It has been proven that making a to-do list increases productivity by an average of 25%.

Moreover, making a to–do list is the simplest time management tool. Children who have learned to write can set tasks.

Life story:

"Almost 100 years ago, Charles Schwab was the president of the then small American steel company Bethlehem Steel. Since the company was going through hard times, Schwab turned to Ivy Lee, a leading expert on the efficiency and productivity of production at that time, for help.

The expert, having met with all employees of the company, advised them to make a simple to-do list of 6 mandatory items at the end of each working day. At the same time, tasks that were not completed during the day could not be transferred to the list of the next day.

Three months later, the production efficiency indicators increased so much that Mr. Schwab did not stint and wrote an expert a check for $ 25,000."

So, we don't need to pay anyone $25,000, we just need to start writing a to-do list right now in a notebook, in an app… And this "here and now" will increase our productivity at times and save time on useless time expenditures.

Time management with to-do list

We begin to structure life according to our to-do list.
The point is that to do something, you need to write it down.
And to write it down, think about it. Thus, the to-do list becomes an effective link between the plans in our head and the execution in reality.

You can know a little about managing a to-do list:

1. First, usually in the evening you think about tomorrow and a to-do list appears. Initially large.

   
   

2. Then we select the important ones.There are 2 or 3 most important tasks that need to be done in any case. The less important ones are cut off according to the list. For example, some of them are postponed for a few days or for the next week.

   
   

3. Set up a specific time for tasks, if one is required, for example, a meeting or a date that cannot be late.

   
   

4. In the morning, check the list and start the day with important tasks.

   
   

5. Perform tasks throughout the day, reminding yourself of tasks with the exact time. Adjust or correct the plan if necessary.

   
   

6. In the evening check and fix completed ones. Get satisfaction from fixing completed tasks for the day.

   
   

This list of actions can be done both in notepad and in a mobile application, for example, LifeFix and the like. What's convenient is that mobile apps have a reminder notification for tasks, which is easier to control than with a silent notepad.

This is how the to-do list is structured. From a large list, we can transfer cases to other days. We can delete them if the tasks are irrelevant.

And also that we need rest, and in the end productivity is not the main thing, remember, even if no task is completed, it's not scary. You can be happy without being productive!

The main thing is to be honest in choosing important tasks and in the fact that our day is not rubbery and we cannot accommodate all 25 tasks in 24 hours.

Try structuring the day through a To-do List in LifeFix.

Install the app