Quickly Cut Your To-Do List in Half

Okay, so you started a bullet journal, and now you are looking at a giant list of to-do items and feeling overwhelmed.  What happened?  That pretty new notebook was supposed to solve all your problems!  Why are you feeling so discouraged, so frozen in your tracks?

Life is full of more tasks than we could ever hope to actually accomplish.  This is how I make my list manageable.

1.  Take action.  Duh!  Sure this is obvious, but somehow that full to-do list makes us feel as if we really can’t take action.  We don’t know where to start.  The key is to follow David Allen’s 2 minute rule and identify something you can do in less than two minutes. Why?  Because it will shorten your list, and get you motivated to tackle the next thing.

2.  Decide.  Decisions are always daunting.  Should we go with this cable company or the other one?  Do I teach algebra before or after geometry?   Should I sew curtains or buy them?  Seriously, we all need to get a grip on ourselves.  Most of these decisions are not even close to earth shattering.  Set a time limit and write it down.  Do your research, and at the end of that time make a choice.  It isn’t worth wasting your time over.

3.  Delegate.  I intentionally choose one item on my to-do list to delegate every day.  I don’t need to be a martyr, but as our home’s COO (that sounds so much more professional than ‘mom’), I do need to make sure that all our tasks get done. Thankfully, they don’t all have to be done by me.

4.  Schedule it for later.  This is why I always start my bullet journaling by setting up a page for each day of the week.  My to-do list is always more than I can accomplish in one day, but if I take a look at the time I have available, I can realistically plan out when I can accomplish the task.  Sometimes I need to schedule our further than one week, so I put a note to myself in the calendar on my phone.  For example, in December I might make a note for August 1 – “Our scissors are hideous, check back to school sales.”  Instantly, today’s list becomes shorter, and I know that I won’t forget about the scissors in August.

5.  Recognize that it isn’t going to happen.  Some things are pie-in-the sky dreams.  They would be nice to accomplish, but either other things are more urgent right now, or the item simply isn’t that important to me.  Sad, but true.  I always keep a list of Long-Term-To-Do Tasks for the items that I would love to see completed, but I don’t expect to be able to take action on soon.  I keep the list to trigger my own memory (and to assuage my guilt of not doing that awesome thing) but in all reality, these are the tasks that I’m okay with not completing anytime soon.

♦ Bonus:  I created a free printable version of this list to paste into your Bullet Journal.  Sign up below and I’ll send it to you right away!

You have 2 minutes.  Get started.  Look at your list and see how much you can delegate or schedule for later.  You will be amazed at how do-able today’s list will become.