Build a Better To-Do List With These Three Tips

Steady progress is an essential step in becoming a better developer.  One tool for achieving this is to create a good set of tasks to complete.  A daily list is an excellent starting point for building this habit.  However, not all approaches are the same.  Keep these three items in mind so you can create a better to-do list each day.

Simple/Actionable

The central idea of a to-do list is to provide a simple plan for getting things done.  Thus, these tasks must be well-defined and easy for you to understand.  We want to be able to hold ourselves accountable for our list.  That is where the simple requirement comes in.  We are listing items that will either be "done" or not at the end of the day.  If the task is not defined in a way that is easy to assess for completeness, then we are missing the point.  Yes, this approach may require us to think about our tasks in a little more detail than we want.  However, "design" or planning time will be a good investment while helping us move more smoothly from task to task.

https://psychcentral.com/lib/top-tips-for-setting-goals-and-priorities/

Realistic

Software developers (among others) are famous for underestimating their tasks.  This weakness often spills over to daily task lists as well.  I personally run into this problem and have had numerous discussions with others in properly setting daily goals.

When you create your list, make sure there is a lot of "wiggle room."  Things happen that take us off course.  That is ok.  We can adjust and work with an incomplete list at the end of the day.  On the other hand, a list that never gets completed will tend to lose its value.  Think about it. If you ask someone to do something and they tell you day after day that it will get done "tomorrow," when will you give up on it ever being complete?

Eat The Frog/Set Priorities

We have agreed that putting a task on a list does not mean it will get done "today."  Therefore, we need to order our tasks in a way that gets the most important ones done sooner rather than later.  Better yet, when we get the things we dislike done first, the other tasks seem easy and enjoyable.  There is no reason our tool for accountability can not provide us some victories and endorphin boosts along the way.

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