the other critical component to getting control over your time is choosing and maintaining a to do list. That works for you. Lots of productivity experts make the claim that they have the single best approach for how you can make sense of your ever changing tasks and shifting priorities. We could list off dozens of methodologies, techniques, apps and tips, but as usual we'd rather keep it simple. That's because we know that when it comes to how we schedule and prioritize our activities, there's not a single cookie cutter approach that works perfectly for everyone. At the end of the day, you're the only person who knows exactly what you have on your plate. Your specific responsibilities stresses joys, stakeholders goals and dreams. So in this lecture we will share general principles for maintaining an effective to do list. We're also going to share our specific recommendations for which to do. List tends to work well for each intuitive organizational type and finally, we'll discuss how ...

your calendar and email play a role in an effective system for handling your two DUIs first up, what counts as a to do list in its simplest form a to do list is a comprehensive record of everything you want to get done broken down to a task level, but a good to do list is much more than that. It also reflects your priorities. It helps you decide what tasks you want to handle when, in a way that is aligned with your broader goals. To complicate things, there are now endless choices for what format this record takes to do lists can be paper or digital calendar or app based. So how do we know if we have an effective to do a system, a good to do list will always have the following qualities. It is a single master list. It's comprehensive, it's a full list of all of your impending actions. It's simple, quick and easy to update or change. It's easily accessible and can be updated anywhere anytime it's clear and pleasant to read. It mimics your natural tendencies. This means that it shouldn't be a big strain to update. Most to do list failures happen because people go with a format that doesn't really work for them or try to maintain an overly complicated system. We want you to choose a to do list that feels simple and easy. Not like another task. You never get to if you already have a to do list system you're happy with please double check that your existing system meets these guidelines. If you don't currently have a to do list system you're happy with now is the perfect time to make it happen. So which to do list do we recommend our minds process and work through tasks differently. So it's critical that you're choosing a to do list that works for your organizational preferences and tendencies. If you're intuitive organizational type is competent or execute er we recommend you go with a digital to do list platform. There are a lot of these out there ranging from trail Oh to base camp monday and more if you are coordinating teams and sharing or delegating a lot of tasks like Jonathan does our go to is a sauna. We love Asana because of its flexibility, customize ability and phenomenal team communication tools. You can create projects and even teams for different things you're working on so that you are able to keep your own personal stuff in the same workspace as things you work on with your colleagues, your church group or anyone else, then you can see all of the tasks assigned to you in one clean interface. Asana is also great because it integrates with gmail, slack calendars. Xavier and more making it easy to create new tasks automatically or from wherever you may be working for someone who works more independently. We prefer ever know or if you like things super simple. Even just a dedicated to do list page in your notes app will do this is nice because it allows you to cut down on having one more app for many people, this also mimics their natural style of inputting actions. A quick laundry list of things to get done. What about your phone's built in reminders or gmail tasks. You might be surprised to hear us say that we don't really use these built in reminder apps on our phones. But the truth is we've never found them to actually work for us or people we've coached in the past. Sure. It's nice to be able to tell Siri or Alexa to remind you about stuff. But realistically you can use an automation tool, like the ones will show you later on in the course to push information into somewhere like Evernote. If you want to leverage those features, if you're intuitive, organizational type is indifferent, you're going to want to keep your to do list, simple, tangible and proximate, that's why many in different types actually prefer a paper to do list. I like to give my indifferent clients little notebooks and they usually come back to me a few weeks later shocked by the difference in their productivity. This is especially true for someone who often feels overwhelmed or unorganized note that it helps if you actually like your notebook, you should have a spark joy connection with it and be excited to pick it up. Strivers tend to be the most complicated when it comes to finding a to do list system as they need something really simple yet robust. And also a method that will really stick the key is to mimic whatever you are naturally doing. So if you're constantly writing on post its and making physical lists, go with a paper to do list if you like tasks really broken down or color coded or your notes app is usually littered with two DUIs try one of the competent or execute er digital solutions. Remember this is just a recommendation to get you started, you can try going digital for a week and then paper for another week and see which is sticking better, what matters is that you give a master to do list a chance and that you make your to do list truly your own. So pause this video, sign up for one of the apps we recommended or grab a spare notebook and begin jotting down everything you need to get done, you can play around with highlighting ranking priorities, whatever works for you. Remember to keep things simple and don't get stuck being your own bureaucrat that being said, if you're an execute er you're really gonna want to take a page from the getting things done model and pour out every task, even the smallest administrative things onto your to do list, this is going to free up your mind for value add activities and give you a sense of relief. It is also worth mentioning that to do, let's do carry some possible productivity dangers now that everything is in one place, you can end up convincing yourself that less important tasks carry more weight than they really do. You can easily roll over your list day after day, especially when it comes to a digital to do list. There's one power productivity tip, we love for combating this to do list stagnation, courtesy of johN form ceo Chicken tank tank recommends that every day as you get to work, you think about the one thing you can accomplish today that would have the most impact. He jokes if you are having trouble thinking of something, I'll give you a hint. It's usually the thing you least want to do. So as you look at your to do list each morning, highlight the one thing the single thing you must get done that day to make you feel proud of yourself when you fall asleep at night. If you consistently get that one thing done every day, you begin to really see progress. I've been using this tip all year and been finding it incredibly effective. You can even take tanks advice to write the single high impact goal on a post it and sticking it on your computer screen. Using this tip you get the peace of mind of a comprehensive to do list but also keep your eye on your highest impact work. Lastly, let's address how your to do list, your calendar and your email interface. Let's quickly review the key functions of each of these tools, your calendar tracks how you spend your time, Your email is a communication platform and an actionable task list. Your to do list is a record of your priorities and everything you need to get done out of these three. We recommend you treat your to do list as king because it's the only place that is totally yours. Other people can send you calendar invites and emails but only you decide how to handle your to do list your to do list can be like your personal little kingdom, the place where you decide what really matters to you each week and what you want to get done. This means that you may have some duplication going on. For example your to do list might have an item on it that is already blocked off into your calendar or a task that already appears as an email in your inbox. This is okay because your task list is king. It is the only place where you and only you prioritize what needs to get done. We recommend starting and finishing your work week and workday with a quick glance at the list. You can even slot this time on your calendar time to set up that master to do list and don't forget to highlight your one thing each day. Now you can hit the ground running.

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Worksheet - Exploring Your Intuitive Organizational Type

Worksheet - Surveying Your Digital Landscape

Worksheet - Email Account Triage

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Jonathan Levi & Maya Yizhaky

A serial entrepreneur who owns a 7-figure media empire & mindful living coach and expert, with experience in international

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Self-Improvement Time Management Lifestyle

Ratings and Reviews

joe culver

This class is well organized and flows well. There is one thing I do NOT like is the reference to another class in the Syllabus: "Kill The Chaos of Information Overload with Evernote Webinar" The webinar has only one good tip, use Tabs in Evernote. The webinar hypes more tips if you buy the course by Charles Bird. I bought the course for $197 which was listed as a discount from a much higher price. The course is poorly assembled, out of date, and hardly worth more than a few dollars. It assembled with a bunch of short videos, each video starts after he is talking and ends before he is finished. Evernote Scanner is no longer made and Evernote no longer supports the software.

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Choosing & Using A “To-Do” List

Choosing & Using A “To-Do” List

Lesson Info

26. Choosing & Using A “To-Do” List

Lessons

Download The PDF Syllabus

Course Structure How To Succeed

What is Digital Overwhelm

Why Does It Actually Matter

The Alternative - Digital Peace of Mind

Quiz - Chapter 1

The Importance of Robust Systems

The Power of “The Cloud”

Leveraging Automation To Reduce Friction

Reestablishing A Healthy Relationship With Your Technology

Digital Minimalism - The #1 Strategy To Achieve Order

What Intuitive Organizational Type Are You

What To Do When “Life Happens”

Quiz - Chapter 2

Wrangling All Of Your Email Accounts

Inbox vs. Archive - Achieving Inbox Freedom

The Machete - Cutting Down Your Overloaded Inbox

The Scalpel - Strategically Cutting Down The Rest Of Your Inbox

Get A Grip On Your Subscriptions

Starting Fresh - Creating Your Own Structure

What Happens Next - Beginner’s Inbox Organization

Let’s Get Ninja - Advanced Inbox Organization

Quiz - Chapter 3

Enabling Back-Ups

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