Managing my To-Do List With a Bullet Journal
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by how long your to-do list is? Do you ever decide not to even make a to-do list because your list is so long it would take forever to write down everything you need to do?
I know. It is challenging to get everything done on your to-do list and most days I don't even finish my whole to-do list. You just want to get as much as you can do on your to-do list every day.
Today, I wanted to talk about some of the tactics I use to get my to-do's done with my bullet journal and a few other tactics you can try out for yourself.
4 Ways I Manage my To-Do List With a Bullet Journal
The first page I use to manage my to-do list is my daily routine page. There are some things I do every day without fail. By creating a routine, I can make sure that I do these to-do's (almost) every day. :)
Maybe you don't need to write yours all out and you already know what your daily routine looks like. That is fine, but if you have no idea what your daily routine looks like, then it is time to find out.
Make a page in your bullet journal and write down everything you want to get done each day. If you don't care what time you do something, then don't add it to the list. Now break up your list into a few different groups which will be different for everyone.
For me, I added a morning, noon, and night routine with a bulleted list next to each one. If you want, you can break your daily schedule up into time blocks, but I don't like feeling hurried, rushed, or behind schedule, so I don't use time-blocking. It may work for you though so don't discard the idea immediately!
By using a daily routine page, I don't have to write down the things which I do every day over and over onto my to-do list.
I have a whole post on how I set up my daily routine layout so if you are interested, you can read it here.
Next, I use a goal page and the one in the picture is specifically for school goals, but that is just because it is for the 2019-2020 school year.
Goals are another form of to-do's so you want somewhere where you can write those down. Then after that, you can break your goal up into smaller to-do's, which you can add to your weekly/monthly layout.
It isn't absolutely necessary to have a goals page, but it is nice to be able to see the bigger picture of what you are trying to achieve.
If you are doing something every day, but you don't necessarily want to do it at the same time every day then you can add it to your habit tracker. I think that habit trackers are a big part of what makes the bullet journal work for people.
It is definitely a big help for me. :)
This way as you can see in the picture above, it saves me time from having to write down my habits every day on my to-do list. All I have to do is add a little dot for that day. This makes so my to-do list is shorter by ten items every day.
Last but definitely not least, is my weekly layout. I do use a monthly layout, but I don't really write down to-dos on it. I only write down to-dos and habit ideas for the next month in my "next month" section.
For my weekly layout, I like to keep it simple with a little bit of a different design every week. I like doing the horizontal layout because if I do a vertical layout then I don't have enough room to write one to-do per line.
I usually do a weekend square instead of Saturday and Sunday because I don't have many tasks that I have to do on the weekend.
Just adding to-do's and events makes it easy for me to see at a glance exactly what I have to do. If I don't get something done, then I migrate it to tomorrow. This running to-do list works really well for me.
Sometimes I put my to-do list in order by time, and other times I put it in order of importance, but it really just depends on how much time I have.
Other Ways to Manage Your To-Do List
Here are a few other ideas of ways to manage your to-do list.
- If you don't carry your planner or bullet journal around with you, you can always have a picture of it on your phone or if you have more time you can write it down in your calendar app.
- You can check off one thing on your to-do list and then pick a new one right away without taking one of those "short" breaks, which ends up being really long.
- Do the hardest tasks on your to-do list first.
- Take a small timed break, so you don't get too tired. Exercising for fifteen minutes is a good way to take a break!
- Alternate between doing a hard task and one that is shorter/easier.
Managing your to-do list is all about being productive. You want to be able to finish one task and then go straight to the next one without getting off track in the middle.
Read these other posts too. :)
- How to Start a Daily Routine + Bullet Journal Layout
- Plan With Me October Bullet Journal Layouts
- Pros + Cons of Bullet Journaling in a Binder
- How to Bullet Journal in Your Planner
How do you manage and keep track of your to-do list?
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