Tip 82: To Do Lists

I am a big proponent of lists. When I played Magic: The Gathering a lot I made a lot, and by a lot I mean a lot of decklists. I found some the other day when I was cleaning up and I was mildly amused. Anyway, in high school we had agenda books in which we were to record our homework and the like. If I wasn't in all the same classes as my roommate last year I don't know how I would have remembered to do all my homework. I started using folded up pieces of paper towards the end of the year but that was not terribly affective.

This year I got an agenda again and I've started using Microsoft OneNote (more on this in another tip). My friend and roommate from last year uses this cute little program called Remember the Milk and integrating it with Netvibes and Quicksilver for his to do lists.

My cousin called my mom awhile back while she was cleaning out her house. She said she had found a lot of old to do lists and didn't know what to do with them. Naturally, my mother told her to throw them out. To do lists have a very limited lifespan and don't work in multiples. I have three to do lists going at once usually, but they serve different purposes. One is only for homework (agenda), one for non-homework only (thumbtacked to my cork board behind my desk), and one half-assed one for everything on OneNote. It would be stupid to have like three homework to dos, because the idea is to simplify your life, not complicate it. You don't need to be cross referencing to do lists to figure out what you need to do.