Seriously Simplifying Your To-Do List

Hey friends! Welcome back to our Finding Balance Series, where we’re spending the week talking about 4 steps to finding real balance in your life!

If you’re a list-lover, today is for you! We’re tackling Step 2 – Simplifying Your To-Do List!

Once everything is sketched out on the calendar (catch yesterday’s post here, if you missed it!), we are freed up to tackle all of our to-do’s.

I know. This can be the most overwhelming part of your days – likely because you have to-do’s in a million categories. Home, work, parenting, marriage, school, neighborhood, community, church – the list truly can go on and on and on.

The thing I hear most often from you guys is that you’re drowning in your to-do’s. And I get it. With so many tasks in so many different categories taking up space in your head all the livelong day – not to mention all the new tasks you’re going to add to the list each day! – it’s VERY easy to feel like you just can’t ever catch up.

That is exactly why I think the WAY WE ORGANIZE our to-do’s really matters. In reality, there are a lot of tasks that we could actually QUIT thinking about simply by putting them into a recurring system that ensures they actually get done.

We call it our Master Checklist. Are you ready to make yours?

The RIGHT Categories For Your To-Do List

The truth is, you could organize your to-do list in a million different categories. You could sort by type of task, or by where you need to be when you get it done, or by priority (which I DO love to do – you can see how we do that here).

But the most effective way I’ve found to tackle my to-do’s is by organizing my list into three categories, for the entire month at a time:

• Daily Habits
• Weekly Tasks
• Monthly Projects

Daily Habits //

These are the little tiny tasks that you want to do on a daily basis, but are still taking up space in your head.

Now, let’s get real – you do a million things each day, and if you put them all on this list, you’d run out of paper. I get that. But this part of the list is really for those things you want to do, but often forget or overlook. The ones taking up space in your brain because they aren’t already second nature. 

For example, if you brush your teeth every day without thinking about it, no need to put it on the list – you’re already doing it. But how about your daily exercise, or your Bible study? If those things often slip your mind (and then take up precious brain space because you either still want to get to them or feel guilty about NOT getting to them), they go on the list. 

You want to fill this section with the daily things you WANT to be doing, but often forget (or get pushed to the side). Writing them down in this part of the list helps you see them (so you don’t forget them as easily!), get motivated to DO them (hello check boxes!), and get them out of your head (the list is keeping track of it so you don’t have to!).

Weekly Tasks //

This section of the list is for all those things you do about once a week, and – again – don’t want to forget. Things like meal planning, grocery shopping, certain cleaning tasks, etc. What needs to be done on a weekly basis in order to keep your home and life running? Those things go here.

Again, the point here is to get things out of your head and onto paper. The simple act of writing it down creates a visual reminder and a functional system so that you are able to clear out that brain space AND get the important things done. Win, win!

Pro Tip: Sometimes it’s fun to organize this portion of the list by day of the week. That way, each day you only have to check off the things that are assigned to that day, and that’s it! One less thing to decide each day – the schedule is already made FOR you.

Monthly Projects //

This section of the list is for all of those one-off projects you want to get done this month. Things like cleaning out that closet, or creating that photo book. These monthly projects would fall into the category of Project Goals, if you follow our goal-setting system. They are one and done tasks, with a specific beginning and a specific end point, that you do NOT need to repeat on a frequent basis.

This is also the place where I categorize all our home management tasks that need to be done but that I always forget about. I create a Master Checklist for every month of the year, and “Change Air Filters” goes in the Monthly Project section for January, April, July, and October. That way, I don’t have to think about it anymore – and I know it will be done once I get to that month!

What I LOVE about the Master Checklist //

Honestly, I love the ability to run my house from one piece of paper. I can check the list for my dailies, see what weekly task needs to be done that day, and quickly figure out if I have any time for one of our monthly projects.

The sheer presence of this well-organized checklist clears up so much brain space for me, I just love it! It’s one of the things I fill out during my monthly planning time, because it seriously simplifies all the things I have to do each month – AND it gives me back that precious brain space for things that matter more than cleaning out the closet.

Your Turn! //

Grab a sheet of paper and start brain dumping ALL your tasks onto it. Then pick three different colored highlighters and sort those tasks into Dailies, Weeklies, and Monthlies. After that, you can reorganize the list by category!

I keep our Master Checklist on our fridge, where I can reference it all month long. It’s my FAVORITE day to keep my home and life running smoothly, without juggling a million post-it notes, or feeling totally overwhelmed by all the tasks I don’t have a real plan for.

Need some help getting started? —> We actually have an entire year’s worth of EDITABLE Master Checklists as a part of our Anchored Life Club! All of the home maintenance tasks are already scheduled out for you (with the ability for you to change them up as you see fit!), along with daily + weekly suggestions. We work on these together every month inside our Monthly Planning Sessions, so you can walk away with a finished, edited checklist, all ready to tackle for the month ahead! If you want that added support + resource help, you can check out the ALC here!