To Do Lists — some people love them; other people dread them! Some people use post-it notes or other paper-and-pencil methods; other people use any number of apps to keep track of their tasks.  Some people use them religiously; other people use them haphazardly.  Wherever you find yourself in the spectrum of to-do list users, you are most likely using them wrong!

This little, insightful article by Cari Romm, which first appeared in New York Magazine, will change the way you look at your to-do list and will help you use your time more productively.  Instead of assigning an amount of time to each item on your list, split up your day into hours and assign a task for each hour.  So simple.  Yet it can revolutionize the way you view your day and help you stop wasting your valuable time!

To Stop Wasting Time, Change the Way You Make Your To Do List

In theory, just having a physical to-do list should offer some incentive to tackle it. For one thing, the act of finally drawing a line through a finished task brings its own satisfaction; for another, crossing something off means you don’t have to keep rewriting it on future lists (and, as Science of Us has noted before, laziness can be a powerful motivator when it comes to cultivating good habits).

The problem with to-do lists, though, is that they can also be their own source of anxiety. Read more…