1. Master to-do list

Gather any scraps of paper, backs of receipts, phone notes, emails to yourself, etc that you have placed tasks and other things you need to do. Or maybe, you're like me and just had an endless list swimming in your head. Either way gather all the to-do's up and put them on one sheet of paper (or one electronic note). This can be a little overwhelming if you do it in the middle of a school semester, so I recommend to do it on a break or put school matters on a separate page from everything else.

When I say list everything, I mean everything. I put an upcoming trip, laundry, a shopping trip I need to make, and painting my walls (which I won't be doing for a while yet). If it is something that occupies your time or brain space, write it down. (I actually ended up adding more after the above picture was taken.)

2. Main goals

Try to keep it to a smallish number, something like 5 or less. I just did this on the same page as my list. Keep them pretty simple and attainable. I chose read more, better diet, exercise, and maintain a schedule.

I specifically do short and medium term here, as I will be using them to prioritize and schedule tasks and events. I recommend taking any long term goals and breaking them down into shorter term goals. (While aiming for graduating is, of course, good, at this point its more useful to focus on passing this semester with the grades you want.)

I also believe it is important to have goals for both work/school and life. I didn't include my work goals in this particular list. Goal development is something I can go more into later. For now we just need some short/medium ones to build around.

3. Sort your Master List from step 1

This is by far the longest section as we are now actually doing something to make this list manageable. Handle each category of item (colored orange below) separately, and when you sort an item cross it off from the master list. Do which ever category first that calls to you.

I used notion for lists and google calendar for dates. You can use paper or whatever you want. I have a later post planned to talk about this specific topic (planners, etc).

A. Items that take 5 minutes or less to complete

If it is feasible to do it right now, do it. Move the thing, take the stuff to your bedroom. Whatever the small task is, do it. (And while you're up, grab yourself some water)

For anything you can't do right now, put those items on a special 5-min-or-less todo list. Later when we schedule, we will build in time to clear that list. The goal is to not add to it by doing those 5-minute-or-less tasks immediately when they come up in the future. Not always possible, but we can try.

B. Items associated with a date that you DONT need to prepare more than a week in advance for (ie, events you just need to show up to, assignments you can do the day before, etc)

Throw it in the calendar (set a remind if your using an electronic calendar) and move on with your life.

C. Items associated with a date that you DO need to prepare more than a week for (ie assignments that take longer than a couple of hours to complete or have multiple parts)

Treat the actual due date similar to items in B, but we aren't done yet. Break down each item into steps to get the thing done and give personal deadlines. I then treat each of those steps as their own event/task (B or D) depending on what worked best for my work flow and that task or event.

For example, if I had a paper due, I could break that down into outline/brainstorming/research, draft, and final. Then I would assign the first bit a month out from the due date, the draft two weeks out, and then I would have those two weeks to clean up the paper and turn it in.

This is probably the longest part. I also believe it is the one that sets you up for the best success later.

D. Everything else, ie tasks that need to get done but don't have due dates.

For these items, I swear by the Eisenhower Matrix. If you don't know what that is, it sorts your todo list on a four quadrant system with importance on one axis and urgency on the other.

Group 1: important and urgent. Anything that needs to get done soon and is important to have completed. For example, I need to renew a training certificate for work. This is important and my start date for work is approaching so its urgent.

Group 2: important but not urgent. As above, but you have some time to get it done. Something like packing for a trip that is a week from now.

Group 3: not important but is urgent. Stuff like responding to emails or doing meal prep may fall here. The earlier these are done the better, but they aren't a priority.

Group 4: not important or urgent. Items that you'd like to get done, but may end up sitting on your list awhile. Reorganizing my computer files would belong here.

Here is my Eisenhower Matrix To-do list in Notion. My group 4 is a bit cut off, but I tend to have a big list in that section. My less-than-5-min-list is right below this.

Next I'll talk about where to actually put this information now that its sorted- planners, agendas, and organizers!(oh, my)