Ripping up the To-Do List and Throwing it in the Trash

It seems like every year life gets busier and busier, and adding a new baby to our family this year has only intensified that feeling. I have always heavily relied on to-do lists to keep track of life and to give myself a feeling of accomplishment, even if on any given day I can only mark “get out of bed” off my list. However, for the month of October, I’m committing to quitting my beloved to-do list.

While reading a recent Forbes article, citing 15 tips from ultra productive people, the tip “quit to-do list” stood out as something that might just work for me. Now, if you’re like me and wondering how these ultra productive people can track and accomplish the tasks at hand without a to-do list, here’s their secret — if something is to take more than 10 minutes to complete, they will schedule time to do it on their calendar.

**MIND BLOWN**  

I read this and truly thought these people aren’t just ultra productive, they are geniuses! Not a day goes by each week where my to-do list doesn’t grow and I struggle to find time to take care of these necessary items. Before starting this challenge my approach to my calendar has always been to only put meetings or outings on my calendar. Since returning from maternity leave I also add drive time (if needing to go to another location) and pumping to my calendar, which has been helpful.

After thinking about these things, it made sense to me that I would schedule a 15 minute call to customer service or go to the vital records office to get my son’s birth certificate.  So, I pondered what that might look like in a more day-to-day scenario. Every week, I order my groceries through Fry’s ClickList service.  It’s a huge time saver but I’m sporadic in that I don’t schedule when it might get accomplished. This month I’m going to have a standing date at 8am on Sunday mornings to get my order completed, and then I know by noon I’ll be able to go pick up my groceries.  If I have this calendared every week, I may even be able to squeeze in meal prep on Sunday afternoons!

Now in theory this is going to improve my productivity greatly, but the results are still to be seen. Want to join me on this adventure? I’ll be posting about my experience on Instagram using the hashtag #nphxmomsproductivityproject. Join me!