For most of my career I wrote a to-do list every morning. Date at the top, everything I needed to get done underneath and then a pass through to number them by priority. Pick the top three and start on number one.
It's a good system. It worked for me roughly until about half past nine.
By then a customer had called, a container was sitting somewhere it shouldn't be (I worked in logistics/supply chain), and three of the things I'd carefully prioritised had been replaced by something else entirely. I'd either keep working the list and feel the pressure of everything it was ignoring, or I'd abandon it and feel like I'd failed at the one thing I'd done properly that morning.
That's the part I think that often gets missed about to-do lists. A to-do list is a prediction based on a day that hasn't happened yet. In a quiet, predictable job the traditional to-do list works but in operational logistics or any other dynamic work environment, it's guaranteed to get thrown in the bin.
What I do instead
I write the date, and then I write the time. Then I write down everything that's in my head, exactly as it comes out. No tidying, no ordering, no prioritising and certainly no deciding beforehand what deserves to be there.
When I'm working and new things arrive, which in my line of work is constantly, I don't stop and reorganise anything. I write the new time underneath, and I brain-dump again. And you do not have to limit yourself to just work-related tasks. I often have mixed in reminders of errands to complete in the evenings, loose thoughts to return to later and even a reminder to make a second cup of coffee!
By the end of the day the page looks like a log rather than a list. 08:15, a block of things. 09:40, another block. 11:20, another.
The improvement in productivity and focus is much more apparent to me. There's no schedule to fall behind on, because I never wrote one. What gets done next tends to select itself from what's actually in front of me, and quite often I notice that three items on the page are really the same task, which I'd never have spotted on a numbered list where they were sitting at positions two, seven and eleven.
It's also, and I don't want to undersell this, a relief. Getting it out of your head and onto paper genuinely quietens down the mental noise, allowing me to focus on the current fire that needs putting out.
No system is 100% foolproof
Which brings me to the part of the system which took me most of a year to work out.
The mental relief is the problem.
The brain-dump feels good. It feels like you've done something, because in a small way you have. And that feeling is enough, on its own, to end the exercise. I'd empty my head onto the page, sit back, feel better, and then go and do something completely unrelated to anything I'd just written down.
When I was doing this in a notebook it was worse, because a notebook closes. The page goes out of sight, the calm sticks around, and the tasks quietly disappear until they resurface as a problem three days later.
So, the brain-dump had itself become the reward and not the work.
The one rule that changed everything
What I do now is simple enough to say in a sentence:
Before the page goes down, take one task and start.
It doesn't have to be the most important thing. I gave up trying to work out which one that is. I just choose something quickly that I can begin right now.
That single step is the difference between a brain-dump that clears your head and a brain-dump that moves you forward effortlessly. It takes about four seconds and it's the part I still sometimes forget, a year later.
The other thing that helps is using a single A4 sheet of paper, instead of a diary or notebook. A single sheet of paper can sit face up on the desk next to you all day. A notebook closes, and out of sight really does mean out of mind.
Try it on Monday
Write the date and the time. Empty your head onto one page without any emphasis on order or priority. Then, before you put the page down, pick one item and start it.
When the next wave of thoughts arrives, write the new time and brain-dump again underneath. Don't go back and tidy the earlier block. That's what makes it work.
Do that for a week and see whether your page ends up looking more like your actual day than any to-do list you've ever previously written.
I've made the sheet I use as a one-page printable, with the rule across the top so it's always in front of you. It's free — join the email list below and I'll send it to you.
Filed under · brain dump · to-do lists · capture
