Yes–to do this you need to put “make to do list” on your to do list.

The recommended way is to start each week making a master to do list (probably on a white board). Then, the night before, select certain items from the master to do list, along with anything that’s already scheduled for that day (appointments, ect.), write a daily to do list for the next day. Anything you don’t get done that day can be put back into the master to do list and tackled another day. It does take time and it does take effort and you would have to make a bunch of little decisions about what you’re going to do each day–but you would also see the progress of getting things done and have a list to help keep you on track.

I do it a bit differently. I don’t make a master to do list. I just plan the next week at the end of the last week (my schedule is Monday-Sunday). Each day has two sheets (Franklin Covey Day Planner), on the left side I write things like “Journal” (to remind myself I’m supposed to make a journal entry every day), “Dishes” (to remind me to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen) and other chores, household tasks, homework assignments, and appointments. On the right, I write down work tasks under headings. “To Do” is in black and includes “Comments” (to remind me to check the places I’ve commented on others’ blogs), “Facebook” (to remind me to log in and connect with friends). “My Writing” is in purple, and includes “Book Work” (to remind me the next step in working on my book), “Novel Work” (ditto for the novel). I also have separate headings for separate smaller projects, like “Dabbling Mum” was on for days as I completed that assignment. Assignments or projects that are not urgent are in blue. Things to build my business are in green. Urgent assignments are in red.

Every Sunday have I have “Plan next week” on the left side and the right side. I plan them separately. As things come up, I pick a day and add them to the list. If I learn about something that isn’t current to this week, I write it down for the week it is in, usually on the monthly page not the actual page. At the beginning of each month, I write all those things down on their respective days, then plan my week.

I would estimate that I now spend about 3-5 hours a week managing my to do list. It took me two years to figure out how to organize it so priorities stand out properly (color coding). I’m still working on limiting myself to writing down only what I can realistically do in a day. It’s a matter of trial and error. It is a commitment. It takes work. But, since I’ve gotten my system down I have not forgotten any to-do task–unless I don’t write it down, which still happens, but only rarely.

If all that sounds overwhelming–and it’s completely reasonable for it to sound overwhelming–start with one project. Say you want to plant a garden. What do you have to do to plant a garden? You need tools, you need seeds and plants, you need to dig, you need to plan how you want your garden…there’s lots of things and each has to be done in a certain order. You can’t dig until you have the tools. You can’t plant until you dig. You shouldn’t dig until you plan how you want it to go, but you shouldn’t do that until you’ve gotten the seeds and plants you’re going to plant. By making a list of the tasks you need to do and the order you need to do them, you can create a master to do list. Then, break it down into a daily to do list. Then, once you get the hang of that, expand your list to include other tasks–recurring ones like dishes, other projects, those special cases like filling out paperwork to get your insurance.

The way I handle unexpected events is to forgive myself for not getting everything done, and then move what I didn’t get done further into the week or save somethings until next week. If you make a point of getting the most urgent things done first each day, then it works. I’ll talk more about this in my third post–but there’ll be another post in between. Distractions! Distractions!

Stephanie, there is a paradox to this. There is where I run into problems. In order for me to make this to do list I would have to plan when I’m going make this to-do list and try to figure out everything I would have to do. I would need to dedicate time to do this and it could take me a long time. In effect, I would have to add make a to do list to the to do list. We would have an infinite progression this way. If I was to do this would there be another starting point or a way to resolve this paradox?

In addition, what happens when something comes up and you can’t complete everything on the to do list? Things can and do go wrong. This is murphy’s law. How do you handle unexpected events.

BTW, that includes in finding the right system of note taking. It took me about two years to find one that was both effective and not too time-consuming. I tried many different ways in-between and might try some more now that I’m actually in a physical classroom.

If you like freeware, you might be able to find some similar software, but I couldn’t advise you on what is reliable or functionable.

That one-note looks fabulous, but I assume it’s only available through Office 2010, eh? A shame.