5 Simple Steps to Creating an Awesome To-Do List

Successful men and women use and value a “to do” list as a tool to manage their lives.  In my humble opinion, it is THE most important ingredient for balance.  It is old school and basic.  It works.  Why? Because you can use it for quick tasks; because it is satisfying to cross things off; because it allows you to look forward and work backwards so you don't wake up one or two or five years from now no closer to your personal and professional goals; because it is SIMPLE.

Much has been written about designing effective “to do” lists as time management tools.  Do a Google search and you come up with millions of hits.  We all know how to write a to do list:

1.    Get a piece of paper and pen.
2.    Write To Do at the top
3.    Write a list of everything you need to do
4.    Do everything on the list
5.    If something doesn’t get done, just move it to tomorrow.

Right? Wrong. Challenge yourself to create balanced lists that encompass not just a day at a time but a minimum of a week and have a stack of lists (or an online tool of lists) that allows you to add to for weeks going forward. My personal favorite is a visual list.  It's divided into quadrants with each quadrant representing an area of my life.  

Everything goes on this list from reading a book to taking out the garbage to playing with my kids.  Do I need a reminder to play with my kids? No, but it is part of my view of a balanced life, so it gets a place on the list.   And it is there every week.

A successful To Do list is a living document that encompasses a week period as well as looks forward three to four weeks.  Daily ones are tedious to create and just bog you down.  Instead, take a big picture view and manage long-term and short-term goals with ease.  This is a powerful way to break large projects into manageable chunks thus reducing stress.  Five year goals are accomplished one baby step at a time.
    
Quick Tips for success:

1. Avoid large statements such as FINISH PROJECT A.
2. Put extra items on your list.
3. Give yourself a break - some weeks you won't achieve everything and that's fine.  
4. Look forward and backward.
5. Work in categories – Categories for me include: work, nonprofit, myself and family.

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As the founder of Cubes&Crayons, MF Chapman created a solution for working moms with flexible office space next to drop-in childcare onsite.  Featured in everything from Entrepreneur to Redbook to The New York Times, MF has become an advocate for the hybrid mom and entrepreneur.  She writes regularly on her blog CAKE and has a new book: Take the Cake: A Working Mom's Guide to Grabbing a Slice of the Life You'll Love available late summer 2010.

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