Using Todoist To Stay on Track Of Your Schedule
Overcome the to-do list anxiety with Todoist
How many times you have started your day without a schedule? How many times have you wake up and tackle your day like Rambo? To end up shooting everything minus the target.
This is how rushing into a day feels like for me when I do not have my to-do list. Running like a hamster on a wheel. Thinking that I am doing a lot without really achieving anything.
I have tried them all, Todoist, AnyDo, Google Calendar, Minimalist, and dozens of other apps and schedule methods, and I always come back to Todoist.
- I love how easy it is to type ‘Call John Tomorrow 5:00 am’ and create a new task with the smart tasks.
- GTD System (I love clicking on a task I have finished)
As simple as that.
Scheduling my day for maximum clarity
One thing that I hate is waking up at 4:00–5:00 am and seeing dozens of tasks waiting to get tackled. This gets me dizzy and anxious. I would start asking myself Where should I start, Will I even have enough time to do all this, What is the most or least important.
Trying to answer these questions while scanning a 20 task to-do list at 4:00 am is really enjoyable (I'm being sarcastic). With time I have managed to create a system to help cut through the fog and start hitting tasks as fast as possible.
I am still working on it and improving it on a monthly basis, but I would like to share it in case this might help you.
The Setup
- I start by adding 4 creating 4 labels, I call them Time Blocks. Which represents how I separate my day.
- 🌓 [4:00 — 8:00 am] From the time I wake up until I get to work
- ☀️ [9:00 — 1:00pm] Office Hours until Lunch
- 🌤 [2:00 — 6:00pm] After Lunch Until I leave the office
- 🌑[7:00 — 10:00pm] From the time I get to my house until I go to bed
2. I create 4 filters to quickly see my task for each different time block.
There’s the query you should use for the setup.
- 🌓 = today & @🌓
- ☀️ = Today & @☀️
- 🌤 = today & @🌤
- 🌑 = today & @🌑
What do we actually put on a to-do list?
Short answer; Everything. It might sound obvious but this is where most people fail.
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
Don’t rely on your mind. Your brain is a great tool for creativity and taking quick decisions, but horrible for remembering tasks. A to-do list works, but only if you tell it everything you need to do.
Start by freeing up your mind, add all the tasks you know you need to do. Then, add a deadline like a day and time, or if you want to use my system type @ and all your labels will come out, just select the time block that goes with that task.
After adding a few tasks you should end up with something like this;
The goal is to quickly filter your first task upon waking up, or for the different blocks of times around the day.
To do this, simply go to your filter section and click on one of the time blocks we have created before.
As you can see, we went from seeing 7 tasks to filtering to the only task that matters around 4:00 to 9:00am
How to maximize the outcome of your tasks
A to-do list is there to help you figure what to do next. Ask yourself these 3 questions every morning before starting your day.
The first question; What can I do today that will help me get closer to my goal?
E.g.
Goals; 1. Save more money, 2. Improve health and fitness and 3. get better at selling.
Your tasks should look like this
- Food prep tonight
- Go for a run tomorrow morning
- Read How to win friends and influence people (PS: This is my favorite book, I have read it 7 times, give it a try.)
Second question; What can I do today that will improve someone’s life or at least make them smile?
It can be as simple as reaching out to a friend, sending a meme, buying flowers for your wife, or dinner to a homeless person. You will feel amazing after doing one of these.
Third question; The person I am trying to be, what would his to-do list look like. What type of habits or daily tasks he would be trying to hit?
Think about the person you are trying to be, visualize how he/she manages her to-do list and what are the habits they have been implementing in their life.
Your dream version of yourself might be just a few habits away.
