My To Do Lists
I've been keeping a relativly tight rein on my life recently with the help of detailed, structured To Do Lists. I started this 'experiment' on the first of May and have gone through four lists since then - although I have to admit that I don't start a new list when everything on the previous one is done, but rather when the previous one gets too confusing to look at, what with all the scribbled-in-the-margins additions and notes and so on.
So... some stats.
My lists have three columns: "urgent/important", "people/social life", "other stuff/creative". The "urgent/important" column is sub-divided between short-term and long-term 'projects'. E.g. writing a uni paper will go in the long-term category because it takes weeks or months; calling the phone company to ask about a lost contract confirmation letter will go in the short-term one because it takes ten minutes.
Looking back over my lists I notice that in the first two weeks I concentrated nearly exclusively on the "urgent/important" category, whereas in the latter three weeks I've tackled the "people/social life" category while still keeping most of my energy focused on the "urgent/important" category.
The number of items to be done on my first list was around 70. The number of items struck off my lists since May 1st is 84. The number of items that I worked on in addition to those 84, but haven't finished yet is 13. A lot of these are really long-term things that I won't be able to strike off the list for months or even years.
The number of items on my most recent list, the one I made today, is slightly over 90. Roughly half of these were already on the first list, either because they're long-term projects, or because they're comparatively 'unimportant', or both (the latter would be the entire "other stuff/creative" category, which contains writing, jewellery making, vidding, website building, and most of the more time-consuming fan activities - I *have* done some writing, some LJ catching up and some work on the LoM archive plans, but very little compared to all the other stuff I've worked on).
So, overall I've been quite productive, but I still notice that a lot of really important stuff gets pushed down the list again and again. Most significantly, I've worked far less on my papers and some other uni stuff than I should have. The main problem here is that the "urgent/important" part of the To Do List seems to grow at about the same rate I strike items off it, as does the "people/social life" list, and both of these tend to crowd out the time-consuming, difficult, long-term uni projects.
So... after five weeks of living with a really comprehensive To Do List, I'd say it's a qualified success. It's certainly far preferable to *not* having a list, because it helps me at least to have an overview of what I need to do, and not *forget* stuff all the time, but it's not removed the central problem of there being too few hours in the day...
So... some stats.
My lists have three columns: "urgent/important", "people/social life", "other stuff/creative". The "urgent/important" column is sub-divided between short-term and long-term 'projects'. E.g. writing a uni paper will go in the long-term category because it takes weeks or months; calling the phone company to ask about a lost contract confirmation letter will go in the short-term one because it takes ten minutes.
Looking back over my lists I notice that in the first two weeks I concentrated nearly exclusively on the "urgent/important" category, whereas in the latter three weeks I've tackled the "people/social life" category while still keeping most of my energy focused on the "urgent/important" category.
The number of items to be done on my first list was around 70. The number of items struck off my lists since May 1st is 84. The number of items that I worked on in addition to those 84, but haven't finished yet is 13. A lot of these are really long-term things that I won't be able to strike off the list for months or even years.
The number of items on my most recent list, the one I made today, is slightly over 90. Roughly half of these were already on the first list, either because they're long-term projects, or because they're comparatively 'unimportant', or both (the latter would be the entire "other stuff/creative" category, which contains writing, jewellery making, vidding, website building, and most of the more time-consuming fan activities - I *have* done some writing, some LJ catching up and some work on the LoM archive plans, but very little compared to all the other stuff I've worked on).
So, overall I've been quite productive, but I still notice that a lot of really important stuff gets pushed down the list again and again. Most significantly, I've worked far less on my papers and some other uni stuff than I should have. The main problem here is that the "urgent/important" part of the To Do List seems to grow at about the same rate I strike items off it, as does the "people/social life" list, and both of these tend to crowd out the time-consuming, difficult, long-term uni projects.
So... after five weeks of living with a really comprehensive To Do List, I'd say it's a qualified success. It's certainly far preferable to *not* having a list, because it helps me at least to have an overview of what I need to do, and not *forget* stuff all the time, but it's not removed the central problem of there being too few hours in the day...