Here’s a principle you can take straight to the bank:
If your to-do list looks good, you will want to work from it.
If it’s ugly, you will want to avoid it.
To-do lists are like any other tool: there are good ones and bad ones. The good ones are a dream to use, and the bad ones are often worse than nothing.
When it comes to to-do lists, the good ones look good. A nice-looking list is a beacon of clarity, a dependable ally, a sturdy ladder to the next floor.
A hastily made list is nagging, negative presence on your day. It makes you feel bad whether you’re looking at it or ignoring it.
Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to make a nice to-do list:
- Write neatly and intentionally (or type it)
- Write out carefully what you actually intend to do
- Leave lots of space around the words
- If you make a mess of it, make a new one
The quality of a to-do list can be measured by how good it feels to look at it, because looking at it and wanting to do what’s on it is its entire purpose.
Behold this utter piece of trash, typical of my lists for years:
Does this look like the intentions of a successful and reliable actor? Do you think this guy got this list done?
For years I believed a to-do list was simply information: a list of memory-jogging phrases to remind you of today’s tasks. I now think it has a much more complex effect on its user, especially for the productivity-challenged.
Procrastination happens when the prospect of work triggers a sense of worry, overwhelm, or doubt. If “work” starts to seem like an avoidable kind of trouble or pain, you begin to avoid it. A bad list makes your tasks look unclear, messy, and doubtful, just by how they’re written. It comes at you with the energy of the crazy person on the subway. Naturally, the mind’s “Maybe we can do this later” routines start firing.
On any given day, there are many moments that can trigger your procrastinatory subroutines, and a nasty, bathroom-graffiti-looking to-do list will create one every time you look at it. It screams unseriousness.
At least give yourself a chance to fulfill your intentions today! The to-do list is like the front door, the main entrance to a productive day. An abomination like the above list basically guarantees you will feel bad whenever think about what you have to do today.
If your intentions look like that, you will not fulfill them. Those are scrawled hopes, a plan to fail.
Now look at a list with some self-respect:
Making a good to-do list takes longer – five or ten minutes instead of 30 seconds. This is extremely well spent time. It can save you hours in one day, and the habit can save years of lost productivity.
To make a good list, give yourself that few minutes to make something pleasing to the eyes. It’s a quick and easy win at the beginning of the day.
Fight the impulse to quick-scrawl your tasks on the nearest scrap — procrastinators and ADHDers tend to be shortcutters by nature. Fight that impulse for a few minutes, in order to make a list that isn’t ashamed of itself.
Remember that a to-do list is something you use by reading it. Make a list that reads nicely — one that respects its reader — and it will do its job much, much better.
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