Like most simple things, it’s one thing to do to-do listing and a totally different thing to do it well. 

The first step in effective to-do listing is to integrate it as part of your morning routine. Creativity generally peaks early in the morning and figuring out what to do with your day may well be your most important creative task. 

Also, if you remember an important task, note it down immediately. The Google Tasks app is great for that. 

OK, so those were pretty obvious points. But there are two less obvious elements that can make to-do listing much more rewarding. 

Recurring to-do’s

These are things you should do every day (or on certain days every week).  

Recurring to-do’s are very useful because, if you tick them off today, they will automatically come back tomorrow. Such automated to-do’s are great for training your superpower of consistency.

Google Tasks makes it very easy to create recurring to-do’s. Just follow these three simple steps:

1. Click on the little pencil symbol to the right of the task you want to recur.
2. Click on “Add date/time” and then click on “Repeat”.
3. Now you can set up whether your task should recur daily or only on certain days every week. 

Don’t hesitate to make many recurring tasks. I have 16 recurring daily tasks, most of which take only a couple of minutes to complete. Regardless of their size, ticking them off always feels great 🙂 

Not-to-do’s

These are items you can tick off at the end of the day if you have managed not to do them. 

I just have two of these: 1) simultaneous eating and TV watching and 2) blogging between 7 am and 7 pm on weekdays. 

Yours will be different. Target any bad habit that can easily trigger more bad habits harming your health, productivity or relationships. Ticking these guys off at the end of the day is also very satisfying!

So, there you have the first important item on your to-do list for today: set up a proper to-do list with recurring to-do and not-to-do items. You only need to do it once 🙂

Tomorrow, I’ll share a bit more about my slow and winding journey to this point. See you then!