5 Things.

I love to make lists.  I enjoy crossing things off, then throwing the list away.  It's very gratifying.  However, I tend to make lists that never get thrown out, because they are overwhelming and half of the things never get done.

I picked up a trick from Real Simple wherein you limit yourself to a to-do list of so many items, usually 5 - 7.  According to them, anymore than that is rather ambitious.

For example, my list today was as follows:

1. Grocery shopping
2. Workout (angry eyes kept me from this in a trade-off for self-care)
3. Read "Tales from Facebook" (I read at bedtime)
4. Read "The Irish-Americans" (see above)
5. Crochet (just after I finish this post!)
6. COMM 150 syllabus

I use a Moleskin weekly / daily planner.  On one side, it has the days of the week, broken into two sections M-F, and the other side is just lined paper.  In the back, there are about 5 pages of lined paper as well, for long-term lists.  I use those pages to write out my 40 Days, 40 Bags goals, research projects, and crochet to-do lists.  I've used this planner for about 5 years, and I don't plan on switching anytime soon.

How do you keep the to-do's straight?  What methods do you use to keep productive?

- M.