Why We Love The To-Do List
The To-Do list is almost a sacred technique of organizing your day and eventually your life. They lessen the day’s anxiety, provide a structure to power-through and are written proof of our productivity.
As the Zeigarnik Effect proves, we obsess over unfinished tasks and remember stuff which is incomplete or pending. The To-Do list comes to the rescue and saves us from a lot of stress.
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Studies show that our mind performs better when we use written to-do lists. Here are some ways to make them more effective:
- List entries should be detailed, having a clear purpose.
- Paper and pen lists, preferably in a dairy, work best.
- Make the work schedule realistic, factoring in all the time that is wasted gossiping or on social media.
- Do not list heavy, unworkable projects(A: Climb Mount Everest) as they would never be done. Break them into small, actionable items.
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The common struggles to conquer our to-do lists:
- 41% of to-do items are never completed.
- 50% of completed to-do items are done within a day.
- 18% of completed to-do items are done within an hour.
- 10% of completed to-do items are done within a minute.
- 15% of the items done started as to-do items.
Master the Art of the To-Do List by Understanding How They Fail
lifehacker.com
Time-blocking consists of assigning individual tasks to manageable time slots.
Instead of writing out short tasks alongside hours-long tasks on your list for the day and hoping you have enough time to tackle it all, this approach lets you set realistic goals for yourself one task at a time.
When we have unfinished tasks, we think about them continuously. But the moment they are completed, we forget about them. If we have unread email, we constantly wonder what it says. But once it has been dealt with, we often cannot recall the details of it.
The name for this phenomena is called the Zeigarnik effect and named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik.
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