3 Huge Mistakes When Making A Daily To-Do List

A daily to-do list is important if you want to achieve your goals. However, many of us do not know how to make it right. Here are 3 huge mistakes that stop you from making a good daily to-do list.

1. Greedy

The more tasks you write down on your daily to-do list, the more effort you must make to finish them. You absolutely feel great and proud of yourself when you are able to cross or tick completed tasks. In contrast, if you care, you definitely feel discouraged or stressed out when you cannot finish what you wrote on your daily to-do list. One of the most common mistakes is you overestimate yourself. In other words, you write down too many tasks that you know you are unable to complete them. You should not be greedy when it comes to making a daily to-do list because it will lead to an unproductive day and mess up other days due to the connection between your tasks. Therefore, it is important to know your limit to avoid stress or discouragement and boost your performance.

2. Imbalanced

Imbalance means either you push yourself to complete too many difficult tasks or you make it easy on yourself by writing down too easy tasks on your daily list. Difficult tasks can stress you out. In the worst-case scenario, you are unable to finish them in one day, which can delay your tasks the next day due to their connection. Depending on how you define easy tasks, it may not lead you to success in life. For me, easy tasks are what I do not need a lot of effort to complete, such as buying a new shirt, making a dentist appointment, calling friends, cooking, taking a nap, etc. Easy tasks usually do not contribute to the development of my career and make me successful in life. Therefore, completing too many easy tasks does not mean that you can get your things done.

However, an easy task can be considered a break because it helps you get away from stress and difficulty. It also takes a short amount of time to complete. You should interleave difficult and easy tasks, so you do not have to stress yourself or feel useless. For example, if you write down 5 tasks in your daily to-do list, 2 of them should be easy, and 3 of them should be difficult, and vice versa. Knowing how to balance difficult and easy tasks not only makes you feel less stressed but also helps you get both small and big things done.

3. Generic

The more generic your tasks are, the less productive you are. If you write down “go shopping” in your daily to-do list, you may end up spending more money than you expect. You may buy anything you like and forget what you needed to buy. On the other hand, if you write down “buy a new shirt – budget $100,” you will make sure that you get it first. Then, you can look for other things that are within your budget. You can decide what to buy when you set a budget and write down a specific task in the daily to-do lists. If you are under your budget, you can save some money. If you are close to your budget or over it, you can look for a cheaper shirt or stop shopping.

Writing a specific task can guide you to your goals instead of making you confused and wasting your time.

An effective daily to-do list plays a huge role in a productive day (Click here if you want to know how to have a productive day). No matter what you write down in your daily to-do list, please make sure that you can stick with your tasks until you complete all of them.

Don’t forget to share these 3 huge mistakes that stop your family, friends, and loved ones from making a good daily to-do list. Also, feel free to share your daily to-do list with us at the PHOrum.