Managing deadlines to get it all done
ToDoIst is my tool of choice — but even a simple calendar will work
In an interview a few years ago, President Barack Obama recommended to young people, “Just learn how to get things done.” People will notice if you’re someone who can get things done, and that’s a great way to get ahead, he said.
I’ve tried to be one of those “get things done” people in my own career. I may not be the most brilliant writer or editor, but I am the person who gets stuff done consistently. And one big way I do that is by managing my workload in such a way that no task gets left behind. But what does that look like in practice?
In my last post, I talked about deadlines and suggested that you can use deadlines to help you get your work done. For me, this all relies on ToDoIst, a task manager app. (I use the free version, though, at times I’ve wished for a couple features in the paid app, such as being able to organize tasks into projects. I can also see the calendar view and reminders being useful.) This method would also work other to do apps — I used Wonderlist for years until it went defunct — or even with a calendar, either digital or paper. (Yes, it’s OK to write things down on paper. There are just downsides to that.)
Here are the rules:
Rule 1: Everything gets a deadline. It doesn’t matter how little or big, there’s a day when it needs to be done by. And the “deadline” in this case is actually the day (or days) I will do the thing.
Rule 2: That deadline is picked immediately upon learning about the task, no matter where or when I find out about it.
If I’m in a meeting with someone and they ask me to do a task, I’ll stop and add it to ToDoIst immediately. (I make exceptions for meetings with certain people high up in the food chain, of course, but those tasks get discretely written down and immediately added to ToDoIst after the meeting.) Yes, this often interrupts the conversation. I don’t care. I’ve learned that if I don’t put the task into ToDoIst when I learn about it, there’s a good chance I’ll forget about it entirely. (Paying attention to how your brain works is really important for figuring out how to get things done.)
Rule 3: Big projects always get split into component parts. There’s no way I’m finishing a big project in a day.
Rule 4: Anything that has to happen over and over is added as a recurring deadline so I only have to think of it once.
Rule 5: At least once a week, review the upcoming deadlines, and add and adjust as necessary.
I then use the Upcoming view in ToDoIst to see what I need to do each day. If I finish everything on the list for the day, I’ll look ahead and complete any tasks scheduled for later days that I can fit into the time I have available. It can be really satisfying to cross off little tasks that are planned for future days.
And that’s it.
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This works for me because it means that I don’t have to decide what to do on any specific day. Those decisions were made for me in the past, probably when my brain was primed to make good decisions. And because everything has been added to the to do list, I don’t forget about it.
I like ToDoIst for this because the simple interface works for me. But there are plenty of to do apps that work similarly. Or you can just write everything on a digital or paper calendar. If you’re using paper, just make sure you use a pencil or erasable pen so you can easily make changes.
If in the end, though, you miss a small task here and there that should have made it to your to do list, remember to be kind to yourself. We’re only human, and we’re never going to be perfect. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
What I’m reading
I want to thank Bethany Brookshire at Team Trash for her recent shout out. She notes that exercise and organization have one big thing in common: The best thing is the one you’ll actually do. This is why I don’t pay for a gym membership.
Next time: Getting all those internet tabs under control.
— Sarah
P.S. If you’ve got a question, comment or idea for a future newsletter, please email me at sciwriter.sarah@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you. And if someone forwarded this to you (hint, hint), check out my first post and what you can expect from The Systematic Scribe.