The Power of Lists

For the past few years I have used lists to keep myself semi-organized on what I need and want to get done. I find them very useful and motivating. From what I know (which is very little) about the GTD process it also heavily relies on lists. For me the most useful one I have is this one called "things_todo_today.txt" it sits at the bottom right corner of my desktop. One of the last things I do before I drift off to sleep is write down the things I want to accomplish the next day. Some are general and some are very specific. I also do this for my day job. Why do I do this? Well for two good reasons:
1) My brain leaks like a sieve and I can't always remember what I want or need to get done.
2) I find it motivating when I get to move an item on my list from "todo" to "finished."

So, what does a daily list look like for me? Kind of like....

--== Things to do today ==--
- Work on product X
- Day Job
- Kitty Litter
- Dinner
- Work on client Y
- Work on client Z
- Follow-up with Bob

--== Things Finished ==--


Well that is what it looks like at the start of the day :). The goal is to always have everything on the list in the "finished" area by time I write the new one. Do I accomplish that goal every day? Nope. Do I get close? Yep! Other things come up and I adjust throughout the day. Will this work for everyone? I doubt it. I am sure some people would hate to do this and/or not maintain the list or be over-zealous and put 50 things on the list. There needs to be a good balance between getting stuff done and overloading yourself. If you put too much on your daily plate you will just feel crappy, which is never fun.

Back to work, I go.