Put Your Energy Back in Your To-Do Lists

To-do lists are something we all create. Sometimes they are just little reminders, and other times they play a major role in determining what gets done and when. However, there is a complex science behind the effectiveness of to-do lists, and why paying attention to certain pieces of information can turn your to-do list into a productivity organizer.

When creating your to-do list, put a focus on the energy you'll need to complete each task. Broken down to high, normal, and low levels of energy, different tasks are best completed at different times. So for the first outline of an important project, you would ideally want high energy. For an unimportant briefing of an article, low energy could be utilized. Matching your energy with task energy can allow you to be as productive as possible.

Equally important to energy matching is priority labeling. All task on a to do list need to prioritized. A good way to do this comes from David Allen, who breaks tasks into four categories. Urgent and important, Urgent and not important, Not urgent but important and not urgent and not important. By labeling your tasks this way, you can ensure that the most important things are handled in due time, and those tasks that can wait are put off until a suitable time arises.

Correctly labeling and organizing your to-do list can be great way to boost your productivity. Often times, we waste time by meddling over things that are not of the upmost importance. Label the items on your to do list and I guarantee your productivity levels will increase.