The strange case of the to-do list

I'm a somewhat organized person. As I'm a mobile worker, I have time every morning after I've run the cable lock and power brick for my laptop into the wall to update my to-do list.

I tried a Franklin Covey organizer, but what I've found is a standard wire bound notebook plus a modified Covey scheme for tracking items is just as useful and 2/3s as bulky.

Here's how my system works:

1) ALWAYS update this list in the morning. It's the very first thing I do when I am waiting for my laptop to boot: update the list. It mentally refreshes me as to what I have outstanding to do, and frequently generates some additional things that I want to get done today.

Why does this work for me? I, through long experience and trial and error, have come to realize that I have a working set of tasks that I keep in the forefront of my mind that are things that I need to do or have associated some higher value to. By refreshing that mental list with the previous list of things, I can prioritize and de-prioritize activities, and most important, have a traceable line back to when something became a to-do. It's sometimes as important to know when something went on the list as it is what is on the list.


The other rule 1): Only I can add things to this to-do list. Notwithstanding the occasional funny addition from co-workers, this is a rule I've held from when I first became a sysadmin and had my to-do list on the whiteboard in my office. Controlling the work via the to-do list is vital to making sure that you're keeping in sync with the list and also keeping most of your sanity. It's one thing to be asked to do something, it's something completely different to allow others to task you with something. For me, the mental gate of committing to doing something is when it makes it onto my to-do list.

2) Each left hand page is the to-do list. Starts with the date on top. I move forward all open Action Items from the previous to-do list, and once they're moved forward, drive a line under the number. Anything that gets added below that line is New Work. That way, I can see immediately what I've been carrying and what I've been adding.

3) Items are marked as follows:
a) Not started/new, there is nothing to the left of the number.
b) When an item is complete, it is marked with an X to the left of the number.
c) When an item is waiting on someone else, an arrow pointing to the left of the page is marked.
d) When an item is deleted, the number is crossed out.

4) The facing page (and subsequent pages as necessary) are work pages. I jot notes, doodle, and generally work on the other pages. I used to start the to-do list on the right hand page, but I found myself flipping back and forth to the to-do list, so a simple change to start the list on the left page and work on the right made it so simple and easy to get a look at my day.

5) Calendar is not something I want to keep on paper. My calendar changes too much that a printout is useless. Meetings appear or disappear, are updated, have information in them updated or something else happens that I can't possibly keep up. That's what my phone is for.

Sound a little OCD? It probably is. But in the end, trying to work inside someone else's mental layout is always going to cause friction, so I modified it to work for me.