When we plan to manage our time in the best possible manner, we strive to get as much done as possible in the time available.

If you have read my post on ‘Planning Horizons...', you would appreciate the need to abstract the plan to the highest level (based on how much we want to ‘look ahead’) and then drill it down to the granular level as we roll along the time-line.

The more imminent the event, the more detailed is its treatment. Thus, our plans translate into a list of actions on a day-to-day basis at the atomic level. Please remember that the hurdles we encounter in the execution of our daily tasks are the reality of every plan that is drawn on paper.

It is by effecting daily tasks that we realize the biggest of our plans. In other words, what we may set out to achieve in 10 years will still start with the execution of actions on the first day and each subsequent day thereafter for the next 10 years!

It needs no further emphasis that the daily list of actions/activities/tasks is the building block of all endeavours we undertake in our lives irrespective of their complexity and magnitude. This is where our plans meet the hard reality of life. Since we also have to carry on with our normal daily life while tending to our goals, this daily list invariably consists of routine/mundane/trivial activities as well.

We all know such lists by a name, ‘To-Do Lists’. I will talk about ‘Daily To-Do Lists’ today.

Daily To-Do lists essentially serve four purposes:  -

·         They help organize our day

·         They help us achieve our larger goals bit-by-bit (we eat the elephant one bite at a time)

·         They help us shake ourselves out of the lethargy or paralysis that is so characteristic of procrastination (when the most humungous of efforts is broken down into bite-size pieces of work, it is not so daunting anymore)

·         They help us put our heart and soul into the task at hand without worrying about the slippage of other tasks during the day (because when we have the tasks mapped out on the to-do list, they are less likely to fall through the cracks)

Always treat your Daily To-Do list as a single step in the long journey towards your goal(s).  If you do not take this single step, you are not going anywhere. If you do not take this step in the right direction, you may be moving away from your ultimate goal/destination.

Before we immerse ourselves too much into the science of To-Do lists, let us quickly evaluate if life is possible without To-Do lists. We as human beings are easily excitable during the course of numerous events in a day. Historically, no human being has been able to devise a more efficient method than following a carefully crafted Daily To-Do list in order to get more done during the day, be it having fun or completing pieces of work. So it is possible to go on with our lives without following a daily to-do list day after day, but we are likely to lose sight of our bigger goals. And probably, no alarm bells may go off in our minds even if we continue to procrastinate.

Our daily To-Do lists must take into account the items to be done on priority; the items that contribute towards the larger goal and that keep our plan(s) on track; and also, the items that we need to do on a daily basis to live our lives. In other words, the list should have everything we need to do during the day and be purposeful at the same time.

It is prudent to make our daily to-do list for the next day a night before. This is because certain items on our to-do list may need us to prepare ourselves mentally ahead of time, such as an important presentation at work the next day.