to-do lists

Last week, I finally started a to-do list. Before anyone sends a well-deserved "I told you so"... I know. A huge number of people have suggested I use a to-do list over the years, and for good reason. I just never wanted to bother. It seemed like a hassle.

Unfortunately, I'd lay in bed every night and suddenly remember something I forgot to do, or start running through a list of things I needed to remember to do tomorrow. That actually kept me awake at night.

The day I decided to try it, my list looked like this:

Guitar Practice (twins)
Spanish (me)
Three workouts
Vacuum entire house
Clean off dog crate
Workbooks (girls)
Unload dishwasher
Clean craft closet
Make flu shot appointment (girls)
Pay student loans
Clean dining table
Swiffer kitchen 

And this list doesn't include the things I do every day. I had to work all of this in around my regularly scheduled household programming. Without the list, I'm not sure I would have accomplished even half of it, because I would have wasted a lot of time trying to remember what needed to be done, and figuring out when it would fit in.

With the list, I completed all but one of my chores. I didn't clean the craft closet. That place is a mess and is going to require a bit more motivation and time.

Once I made the list, I no longer had to waste time thinking about what needed to be done. And, when something got done, I got the satisfaction of crossing an item off of the list. The main drawback was knowing I'd have to make a new list every morning. So, it wasn't going to keep me from going to bed thinking about chores. Plus, sitting at the kitchen table and coming up with a list is a bit of a waste of time and a great crutch for procrastinating.

So I did a little research and found a free-to-use to-do list app called todoist.

Todoist in my browser

Todoist is on my iPad and I can access my list through their website. It allows me to create categories for my chores like "clean", "exercise", and "guitar". In those categories, I can create tasks. In my "clean" category, my tasks include, "vacuum", "unload dishwasher", and "clean dining table".

One very important feature of Todoist is the ability to repeat tasks as often as needed. "clean dining table" and "unload dishwasher" repeat every day. "Vacuum" repeats ever three days. I do laundry, and clean each bathroom and the kitchen once per week on different days. I could even schedule tasks to repeat once per month, once every few months, or once per year.

Every day, a new list is generated for me based on what needs to be done. If I missed a task today, I can postpone it and it will show up again tomorrow. If I finish all of my tasks for the day, I can look at what is on tomorrow's list and start working ahead. And I never have to waste time making a list for myself. I only have to add tasks when something new or unique comes up, like "make flue shot appointment".

I can do all of this with a free account. There are additional features you get with a paid account, like making notes for yourself and mobile and email reminders.

I've been using it for about a week. So far, I love it.