Dear Sunday Sparker,
A recurring theme that appeared in my last session with my goals community:
If it’s down, it’s done
If we write it down, we increase the chances of getting it done by 42%, exactly as found in studies. Don’t you want to nearly double your chances of success?
Write it down
You want to meet a friend… write it down
You want to book a doctor appointment… write it down
I loved the distinction that author Kate Northrup highlighted between a Brain Dump list and a To-Do list in her Do Less Planner.
A to-do list is sacred. A brain dump is not, and I am paraphrasing here. You write whatever ideas are in your head on your brain dump list
Not all of these tasks graduate to the to-do list. A to-do list, on the other hand, is sacred. Especially the weekly to-do list
Oh, haven’t I mentioned it needs to be weekly?
Yes it does. A weekly perspective gives you wider room to move compared to the daily to-do list. You still need the daily to-do list, but you pick it from the weekly to-do list
Here is the order:
Brain Dump
List down all tasks that your brain thinks need to get done. We need to set your brain straight. You thought it does not mean you do it. There is judgment. There is distilling. There is filtering
When it comes to the planning part in the weekly preview, I divide tasks into these categories, which I created and improved over time:
- Creative Magic or Creative Business, depending on how the mood strikes (This newsletter is an example of what i put into this category).
- Health / Wealth / Self Care Appointments
- Basil, Family & Friends
- Home (Cooking / Decluttering / Shopping)
- My Job Tasks
I move undone things from the previous week and write whatever tasks come to mind that are rattling in my brain and need to be written down, seen, and evaluated
Decide
From that list, I select my top 3, sometimes 5, goals of the week
I ideally share them with my accountability partner
I write them on a sticky note I see every day, like on my PC screen
Schedule
After that, I put these tasks in my reminders or calendar, or time blocks to work on in my planner
Reading Kate Northrup’s reminder made me realize that what I write in these categories could be a brain dump that covers a month of tasks, from which I keep deriving my weekly to-do lists
Look at your week and plant those tasks in your calendar, reminders, and environment in the form of a sticky note. Otherwise, as I always say, you would forget