GTD: Crossing Items Off Your List

November 17, 2008 

Do you believe in a notepad and pencil to keep track of your to-do list?  Sounds very old-fashioned? I’m a sucker for planning things and doing most of my activities in an organized manner. One of my quirks is to get the hardest task on the list out of my way as early as possible. So, if a deadline for an article is 10 days away, I like to get the first draft ready a week before leaving enough time for review and final submission two days before its due; this saves some nights of anxious sleep and the family from my foul temper. Getting the balance right between living life one day at a time to keep the surprise element and planning every moment is tricky!The habit of getting things done methodically well ahead in time can be annoying at times. For instance, I finalized the deal with Packers and Movers 35 days ahead of our scheduled move. And I can say from experience that crossing items off list early on works great and keeps everyone sane.

The tricky part in this whole business of accomplishing stuff is identifying what needs to get done and actually executing it.  Over years, I’ve come to use different tools such as Ta-Da List, Joe’s Goals, Remember the Milk, and Google’s To-Do List. But there’s one which is not in the list that won hands down with its proven track of remarkable performance; to this day, I completely vouch for it. It’s my memory. A few years back, I wrote about using memory mapping techniques I use in How I Remember Birthdays. I extend this to keeping track of my everyday lists as well. The first thing in the morning, I do a mental run of what needs to get done that day and go about doing them one by one reviewing later in the evening as to what is pending.

Mental note-making may not work for everyone. There is a very obvious drawback in this primitive system. At times, I am encouraged to procrastinate things I don’t like to do such as the calling up the customer service people to get my water purifier serviced or following up with Insurance firm on the due-date for premium payment or stocking vegetables in the fridge. But then aren’t mundane tasks what most weekends are about? Some periods of the year can be particularly busy such as December for me when personal and car insurance is due, LGs birthday falls right in the middle of it all, book closing, posting seasons’ cards and so on. Similarly, keeping track of 117 items for big projects such as moving cities is not feasible. This is when I turn to my good ole friend : the notepad, for assistance in accomplishing my mission. Strangely, memory can’t compete with the power of writing things down.

There are good days when all items get crossed off the list. The high you get in checking an item is amazing. Seriously. Try it if you haven’t done it before. There can be days when nothing will get done. Be prepared as the list seems insurmountable. On such occasions, I do a little trick of just breaking them into passable pieces and handling them one at a time. Of late, I’ve gone back to my notepad days to manage my days better.

What do you prefer - the techie approach or the notepad way?

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Comments

4 Responses to “GTD: Crossing Items Off Your List”

  1. Johnny on November 17th, 2008 11:20 am

    I prefer the online way (then I can sync through any internet device).

    I use a new service I found: www.wipeelist.com

    I like it a lot!

    - Johnny

    Me: Never heard of this one. Shall check it out.

  2. Troy Malone on November 18th, 2008 6:02 am

    I guess I like a blend. I print out my task list every day and take notes on it as I go along. I then review it in the morning and add new tasks and check off old ones.

    Personal productivity is a very Personal thing!

    Thanks for sharing.

    Troy Malone
    Pelotonics

  3. Katy on November 19th, 2008 5:30 pm

    Also using online application. I am using multiple computers during the day, so I really need my data to be available on all of them.

    When I’m not at the computer, I’m using a Moleskine notebook for quick collect.

  4. Alok on November 20th, 2008 1:26 pm

    All in my poor little head. No wonder I don’t really do everything I’m supposed to do. Then again, it’s a good excuse when I don’t WANT to do it anyway…

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