How To Actually Complete That To-Do List

As a university student with a lot of other commitments I have to schedule my time a lot. In order to help schedule my time, I use a to-do list. I used to spend waste so much time writing my to do list’s out, every week, sometimes every day. This wasn’t working as I was procrastinating by making a beautifully organised list, then relaxing as a treat to myself. Instead I decided to get shit done and made a change where I actually complete my to-do lists. This is how I do it:

What Do You Need To Do?

I use the SplenDO app on my Samsung. Now, this makes it a lot less of a procrastination to actually write out a to-do list, which I used to do multiples times. Does anyone else always seem to lose their list? Anyway, with the app, I add every task when I get it. So if I get asked to do something in my internship, I immediately put it onto my to-do list. This works great because I can pull it up anytime and see what I’m supposed to be working on.

Prioritise

You really need to think about what is the most important thing that absolutely needs to be done. That’s always going to be your first priority. Make sure you always mark down which tasks need to be done first and which tasks maybe aren’t as important so can be done last. So for example, my University assignments take priority over everything on my list. Whereas I can leave my blog for a couple of weeks if and as needed.

Create Deadlines

One of the main things is to write a deadline for every single thing you need to-do. Even if it’s something that doesn’t have a particular deadline, make yourself a realistic deadline. This goes hand-in-hand with prioritising, set a later deadline for a lower priority task. I always feel a sense of ‘pressure’ when I’m nearing one of my pre-set deadlines, which makes me work harder to get it done. On my app, it also makes the item red if its skipped the deadline, so it’s a constant reminder that I needed to get that done and I’m behind my optimised schedule.

Making Time To Do Tasks

Now I use the app, I can start working on a lot of my tasks in my spare time between lectures. But, this doesn’t mean I just wing it. I use my Google Calendar app, and I set myself times to do the work. If I know I have Monday Afternoon free to get to work, I will set aside that time and dont make other plans over it. Being strict with yourself is important. If you have to make plans over it, then always (I mean always) choose another time that week to do it. If you start getting behind on your deadlines, you’ll start to feel really demotivated and your list will go unfinished.