004: Mastering To Do Lists

Mia and Dinah talk about the benefits of To Do Lists and the steps they followed to optimise their To Do List systems.

This episode discusses how To Do Lists allow you to get clarity on what needs to be done and the pros of centralising your lists on one digital tool that can be shared with other family members.

How to do to-do lists right

They outline the difference among:

To Do Lists - are actionable, time-bound, contain verbs
Checklists (e.g. prepping the house for holidays) - help you remember how to do something efficiently and comprehensively
Reference Lists (e.g. movies I want to watch) - capture suggestions, recommendations and sources of info

These lists are all worthwhile but can often be confused.

They talk about the various online tools available and what they use. Dinah is using Wunderlist. Mia is using Reminders in her iPhone for her To Do list and Notes for checklists and references. She mentions that she uses voice commands for Siri to add items to both.

Mia and Dinah discuss the various options of categorising and prioritising lists and how they refreshed and reorganised their To Do lists systems.

Life admin highs of the week

Dinah talks about how easy it was to go on holiday with all her bookings saved on her Google Drive.
Mia talks about how she has already started her Christmas shopping online using wishlists she has added to during the year, and a spreadsheet saved on Google Drive.

Life admin lows of the week

Dinah talks about failing to complete her online grocery shopping.
Mia talks about having technical hiccups with her shared calendar system and its inability to synchronise frequently.

Life admin resources

Doodle – free online scheduling app to simplify choosing an event date or time for multiple people.

David Allen’s book Getting Things Done
James Clear – Talks about prioritisation and habit formation
How I Work – Amantha Imber podcast

To Do List apps include:

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