Write Down Your Priorities

Quick Win

Putting your goals on paper helps you align your daily actions with those goals. And it feels so good to cross them off your list.

Try This Today

• Create two lists: “Get it done soon” and “Get it done later.”
• For the “soon” list, jot down things you’d like to do in the next few weeks, and add a deadline. For example, take a yoga class on Wednesday, clean out the garage this weekend.
• For the “later” list, write down goals you want to work toward that may take more planning, such as learning a language, taking a trip to Hawaii or volunteering for a new organization.

Why

Writing down priorities can maximize productivity. As a 2016 paper about productivity among college faculty says, to-do lists can help free the brain from the distraction of unfinished tasks. Writing down priorities also might help because, as a 2018 report in the Journal of Consumer Research notes, people often perceive requests that crop up suddenly as being urgent and will fulfill those at the expense of more important long-terms goals.