Write a Better To-Do List

Quick Win

Creating a to-do list helps relieve anxiety about the future and focuses your attention on productive strategies for getting things done.

Try This Today

• Keep it simple. A list that goes beyond 10 items can backfire, triggering anxiety that can make you feel too paralyzed to take action. To avoid a list crammed with chores, identify what’s urgent and place those tasks at the top of the list so they'll be prioritized.
• Break it down. One common pitfall:  eople create a task that’s overly broad, such as “declutter family room.” A task like that feels daunting because it’s too vast and vague. Instead, break the project down into much smaller, achievable blocks, such as collect books for donation, throw out broken lamp, etc.
• Make each day a clean slate. Don’t carry over yesterday’s list. Each day, start fresh with a new list so the same old items don’t clog up your master plan. New lists also reflect the changing landscape of needs and give us a minor thrill of accomplishment knowing that at least some of what was on yesterday’s docket has been dealt with.

Why

During stressful times when we have a lot on our plates, our minds can start to run wild, projecting anxiously into the future. All that mental juggling can take a toll, making us distracted but not necessarily productive. In fact, we have a tendency to prioritize tasks that pop up suddenly — even if they’re unimportant — simply because we perceive them as being urgent, according to a study of more than 1,300 university students and adults median age 37, published in 2018 the Journal of Consumer Research. The structured order of a to-do list can help us manage multiple unfinished projects and identify what needs to be done first.