Yup Joe's and Joette's, I'm actually doing a post on Todo lists. I used to think that they were a waste of time but not anymore. Someone close asked me how they could become more organized and productive. Yup that's why I'm writing this post.

So what made me start using a todo list? It all happened a couple of weeks ago when I was off from my day job. I don't know about you the reader but sometimes I feel that I waste my off days. Don't get me wrong I'm not sleeping the entire day away but I would never accomplish all that I set out to do. This frustrated me so much that I googled how to be more productive. I even watched YouTube videos and there was one thing that was said in each video and post. As you probably guessed it, they all talked about planning out the day. That sounded to simple because I was doing that it was just happening in my head. There was something missing that was keeping me unorganized and I figured it out. I wasn't writing it down.

How could I expect to accomplish anything if there was no way for me to keep myself accountable. I know some people are wondering how writing down my tasks would keep me accountable. Lets be honest we all forget to do some of the things we want. Writing it down will ensure that you don't forget any of the things you wanted to accomplish. Writing it down also helps remind you that your day is not over until you finish everything on that list. If it's close to the end of the day and you are not even close to finishing you know you have to step it up a notch. The funny thing about writing things down is that it actually works. It's just like your goals you have to write them down if not they are dreams. If you don't write down your tasks then they are not tasks, they are hopes. You are hoping to get the things done if you have the time.

Time that is the next topic I want to touch upon. By telling yourself what you are going to do at a specific time you can get back some lost time. What do I mean by getting back lost time. Think of time like money (even though it is way more powerful than money), you have to budget it and tell it where to go. If you don't tell it where to go, you end up wasting some. You get to find out items that are sucking up most of your budget (time). If you write out what you are going to do from morning to night you get to see where you are most productive and where you aren't as productive. It might be a headache in the beginning but after a while you will get used to it. You will even finish your tasks earlier just so that you can relax. That's the beauty of the list.

So now that you know why you should have a todo list how do you start one. First you have to decide where you want to keep your todo list. I personally use Google Task on my IPhone and my Android because of how well it integrates with my G Suite account. You can use the default notes app on the IPhone or Google Keep on Android. You can even use a sheet of paper or your calendar app. Now that you selected your medium, you have to start writing down your tasks. I know that you are going when is the perfect time to write down your task. I personally like to write my tasks down right before I go to bed, then I double check them in the morning after I wake up. This allows me to make sure that I'm not missing anything. Some people recommend listing your task based on priority and that may work for you but I list them a different way. I list my tasks in the order I want to accomplish them. Why would I put make my bed at the bottom if it's one of the first things I'm supposed to do. I know what some people may be thinking to themselves, why not look at the list as a whole. That is a good idea but sometimes my todo list is quite long and I would have to scroll abit in order to reach the bottom. By doing it my way based on the order I want to accomplish means I get to do them in a timely fashion. My app also removes the tasks I finished so it makes sense for me to list them as I do.

Congrats, you made it until the end of the post. This post was a bit harder for me to write because this information is available through other means. I did my best to make it interesting and different from the rest of the posts on this subject. I want everyone to give this a shot for an entire month. Start planning out your days and see if you are more productive. I know I found it easier to accomplish my tasks when I had them written out in a list. Let me know in the comments below if a todo list helps you out.