TO DO Lists and why you shouldn’t use a TO DO list !!!

5 min readApr 9, 2022

If you liked this article there are many more in my Productivity Blog:
https://www.productivateme.com/

Why you shouldn’t use a to do list?

Let’s start with the bottom line, TODO lists are BAD for your productivity.

I do use one — but for a very specific target which we will talk about later…

When I set out for my productivity journey — I kept reading about productivity habits and kept being reminded repeatedly about how I must have a TODO list.

And so I gave life to my to-do list.

A few weeks went by, I was frustrated, angry at myself, and saw that I was going nowhere with my actual goals — although I kept marking things as Done…

Why TODO List doesn’t work — and are bad for Productivity and Time Management

(41% of tasks in a TODO list never get completed — according to research from the company iDoneThis).

They cause stress — If you are like me you have a lot of things to do during your day and week — so the list gets very long and instead of creating clarity it causes you to stress at how many things you still have not yet completed.
You don’t plan time to get to your TO DO list tasks — The fact that a task is written in your TO DO list doesn’t mean that you have the time or that you have even allocated the time to handle your tasks. You need time to handle your to-do tasks.
They are not targeted for productivity — A to-do list has a long list of what you have to do, not what you need to do, to get what is important — done. And so you find yourself passing the days checking off your tasks without advancing to your targets.
You have more than one — If you are doing it wrong then you have many lists spread around — one on your work board, one on the fridge, one on your phone… too many lists cause a lack of priority between the tasks, and your day depends on which TO DO list you came across first.
They lack priority — Their structure is just a long list of tasks — so what is important, what is urgent, and what am I just wasting my time on? Sure, you could do the trick of distributing to sub-lists, and even if you are the king of TO-DO lists, you have them mapped to A1, A2…Z1, Z2… Now, how much time are you wasting on flipping between lists and deciding what to do next? trying to add a new one in the middle? how long until you will break and stop doing it?
They do not account for time — Assuming (hopefully) that your tasks in the list are organized by priority the list doesn’t account for the length of the task — so you can actually organize your tasks much more efficiently according to slots of time you have and avoid unproductive back and forth task switches and context switches.
It’s too complex — I am not a pen and paper guy, I like everything in a digital form, and in a few apps I tried, opening a bank account was easier than adding a task.
Your TO DO list is “out of sight” — which basically means — “out of mind”.

So what to use instead of a TO DO list ?!?!?! — A Productive Time Management System

Priority Calendar for Productive Time Management — image by pxhere.com

It’s a new tool that just got invented ;-) — Your Calendar.

I have moved to strictly use my calendar to complete my TO-DO list.

Calendar in the form of a daily schedule with daily planning of hourly tasks — spread across the coming week.

If I have a task coming in — I estimate the time it will take me to complete it (a whole article altogether), if I have a slot to put it in I put it there, if I don’t I will find another slot for it in my calendar based on my priorities.

It keeps me much more relaxed — because if I don’t have anything to do in my calendar then I can do whatever I want — stress-free.
My Calendar contains all of my life aspects (Work, home, chores, hobbies…) so everything is organized in one place.
I have enough time to complete each one of my tasks since it’s on my calendar.
A calendar is a simple tool that I know exactly how to use.
It’s constantly in your sight since we look at it all the time to know “what’s next”.

You can choose which type of Calendar you want — Both are excellent, depending on your personal preferences:

Digital — you can use one of the many online calendars — Microsoft Outlook (which is excellent if your workplace uses the Office 365 suite), Google Calendar (if you are using the Google Workplace Suite), and many more.
Physical — Although it’s not automatically synced, there is a HUGE advantage in having a physical calendar:
It’s constantly in front of your view — which is extremely important.
Every change forces you to think about it — which is excellent since it gives you time to think about each task if it is actually in your priorities.

If you are looking for a recommended Physical calendar — I use this: Magnetic Whiteboard Daily Planning Calendar.

Your Priorities and Productivity

A few notes about productivity and priorities — your calendar must reflect your priorities.

Meaning that if a stranger will open your calendar they can know exactly what you have in your priorities based on what is the distribution of tasks and meetings you have scheduled.

Note: If you don’t know how to stick to your priorities and not just randomly do tasks that come up, that will not change if you are using a calendar or a TODO list!

So every time you are trying to find a slot for a task — think: “Is it serving my priorities and goals? / Do I have something more important (not urgent) to do instead? / Do I really need to do it by then ?”

Use one for time efficiency

B.T.W I wrote at the beginning that I do have a TO DO List that I use for a specific target -

that target is when I have a task come in and I don’t have the time to put it on the calendar yet.

I never do what is on that to-do list — I only use it to keep track of things I need to put in my calendar.

In summary

So stop using the TODO list and move to your calendar — you will be much more productive and much less stressed.

p.s. More tips and tricks that you have for tasks tracking will be more than welcomed — either in the comments or by contacting me via the link.

Now go get Productivated :-)

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