I’m a strategist & planner by nature, I’m continually gathering enormous amounts of information, so I write things down, I have a note book that I’m always jotting ideas into, I make lists of all the things I have to do, oh & I just lied to you!
Not a big fat lie, just a little one, I do all of the above except one thing, I no longer make lists. With all the information I gather and all the things I have to do you’d expect the last thing to drop off my list is ironically making lists, but actually it’s the most liberating & most productive thing I’ve done of late!
My lists used to get very long, they would contain lists within lists, they would contain all the little daily humdrum bits of crap I’d have to do, I would have documents on my desktop named, “to do” & “to do 2” & “you really must do these things otherwise there will be trouble (version 4)”, you get the picture.
You may ask, now that I don’t make “to do” lists, how do I get things done? Easy, I only do the important stuff… if something is important enough I’ll remember to do it, I don’t need to write it down, if it’s not something I remember, then it probably doesn’t matter, it’s just something that’s getting in the way.
It’s working for me, I get all the important stuff done first, it’s freeing up my time & allowing me to think about things more clearly. It reminds me of the story of two guys trying to saw down a tree but they’re getting nowhere, someone passing by says “sharpen your saw”, to which they answer, “we don’t have time!?”
What works for me, may not work for you, but I suggest giving it a go, maybe you should add it to your list : )