Daniel Markovitz , Harvard Business Review:
Stop making to-do lists. They’re simply setting you up for failure and frustration.
Oh, shut up. But of course he doesn’t:
The alternative to the feckless to-do list is what I call “living in your calendar.” That means taking your tasks off the to-do list, estimating how much time each of them will consume, and transferring them to your calendar.
I hate to admit it, but he does have a point.
Anecdotally when I really, really, really need to get stuff done for a deadline, I lay out the individual tasks on RePrint calendars and stick to that schedule.
There’s something about writing tasks with pen and paper that makes it a stronger commitment which I tend to stick with.
Why don’t I do this all the time then? Oh, shut up.
