To-Do Taskforce

According to Women’s Health, working women rank stress as their number one everyday problem. Whether the work environment is corporate, not-for-profit or stay-at-home, today’s women have a Rolodex of stress-inducing to-do’s: family to-do’s, friend to-do’s, work to-do’s, um, feminine to-do’s. You complete various tasks here and there throughout the day. You may even deem your day “productive!” But for some reason you can’t get your brain to stop processing the tasks left undone, and therefore, you don’t sleep well, which makes you cranky and forgetful the next day, and you snap at the kids/spouse, and … (sigh). Could you pass the Merlot?
    Throughout the day, we complete tasks of all sorts, usually taking care not to mix work and personal to-do lists. I mean, the guilt (or the icy glare of a co-worker) we’d feel from answering a personal email at work or running out at lunch to grab a wedding gift for a friend is simply not worth it.
    So you drink the wine, and you stay the course. You wake up in the middle of the night fretting about things you forgot, or worse, you forget about things completely. And since you’re awake, your mind restlessly churns with tasks left undone. For some reason, your brain doesn’t seem to care that you can’t do anything about these things at 2 a.m. in your pajamas. There is no stopping it. You’re in full-on panic mode, which brings me to my point: If it all needs to get done, why should it matter what list it’s on or in what order you do? Your brain doesn’t play favorites; it keeps processing and nagging you about all this stuff regardless of priority.
    The book that changed my life, David Allen’s Getting Things Done (Penguin, $15), puts it this way: “I need milk” and “I need to decide whether to buy this company” both tie up space in your psychic RAM. Basically, your brain processes to-do’s of all levels of importance the same way, and it can only handle/remember so much, which is why we wake up at night freaking out about relatively dumb stuff.
    If you know your brain treats tasks large and small as one huge to-do list, why not tackle them like one? It may go against standard protocol, and the Post-it Note prone will likely hate it, but merging all of your life’s check boxes into one single list can make for one very happy and less-stressed lady.
    So, let’s get organized and start at the beginning (I hear it’s a good place to start).
• Pledge your allegiance to one list ... one list without supplementary Post-it Notes and phone numbers on gas receipts. All of your immediate to-do’s should be on this one list. It should include everything from “eyebrow wax” to “client memo” to “PTA meeting Tuesday.”
• Master the art of cherry picking. If you only have five minutes to spare, don’t attempt to tackle the annual report. Find something on your list that takes five minutes or less to complete like, “book Rover’s grooming appointment.”
• Keep a notebook handy. Use your notebook (I recommend a Moleskine) when you’re away from your master list and think of things to do. I keep mine in my purse; I’ve got a friend who keeps her’s next to her bed.
• Commit to giving it the old college try. Most folks who try the one-list method tend to do really well for about a week, and then their desks get flooded by seas of neon squares and napkin notes. I fall off the productivity wagon now and then, but I always feel better when I re-commit.
    I didn’t write the book on this stuff. David Allen did. But I encourage you to read Getting Things Done, commit to the parts of it you like best, and stick to them for a while. The act of merging all aspects of your life (from your kitchen cabinets to your inbox) in a central, organized way has a knack for boosting self-confidence, increasing productivity and improving sleep.
   “Put reminders of those (to-do’s) somewhere your brain trusts you’ll see them at the right time,” Allen says, “and listen to your brain breathe easier.”