The Easy To-Do Checklist Technique That Truly Works
I’ve by no means had a lot luck with to-do lists. As a self-professed (and, let’s be trustworthy, not-so-recovering) perfectionist, seeing a mountain of unaccomplished duties on the finish of the day would ship me right into a spiral. My Notes app was a graveyard of forgotten duties—an ever-expanding checklist that, paradoxically, solely appeared to develop. However then I discovered the Two-Checklist Rule. Abruptly, I wasn’t drowning in to-dos. I used to be really getting issues accomplished.
The Two-Checklist Rule has been my saving grace. It’s a technique of organizing duties into two classes: “must-do” and “nice-to-do.” This strategy helps you concentrate on the necessities, launch the guilt, and keep away from burnout—whereas nonetheless making house for pleasure. It’s a manner of distinguishing between the belongings you completely must do proper now and the duties you may get to later. The Two-Checklist Rule helps you make clear your focus, prioritize successfully, and in the end deliver stability to the ambition-and-rest battle. As a result of step one in balancing these two is realizing what really issues.
The Drawback with Conventional To-Do Lists
All of us have loads to do. Finish cease. In a world that glorifies busyness, our to-do lists have morphed into an limitless scroll—work deadlines combined with grocery runs, inventive desires buried below admin duties. It’s no surprise we really feel continuously behind.
However the issue isn’t simply the sheer variety of duties—it’s that we lump all the pieces collectively with out distinction. Work deadlines sit alongside grocery lists. Private targets, like lastly beginning that ebook membership, get buried below physician’s appointments and tax prep. This “everything-at-once” strategy makes it unimaginable to know the place to begin, so we both try to do all of it (whats up, burnout) or keep away from the checklist altogether (cue guilt). And once we inevitably don’t test off each field, we really feel like we’ve failed, even when we spent your entire day being productive. It’s a system designed for disappointment.
This technique additionally helps launch the strain of unrealistic productiveness, permitting house for relaxation, creativity, and the issues that make life really feel good—not simply productive.
What’s the Two-Checklist Rule?
At its core, the Two-Checklist Rule is about chopping via the noise and specializing in what really issues. As an alternative of a unending scroll of to-dos, this technique helps you manage your duties into two clear classes:
- Should-Do: These are the non-negotiable duties that both transfer you nearer to your targets or assist keep stability in your life. Suppose: ending a piece deadline, choosing up your little one from faculty, or paying the electrical energy invoice. If it immediately impacts your well-being, duties, or priorities, it belongs right here.
- Good-to-Do: These duties nonetheless maintain worth, however they don’t must occur at the moment—and even this week. Organizing your closet, experimenting with a brand new recipe, or deep-diving into inbox group all go right here. If there’s additional time or vitality, nice. If not, no guilt.
Why does it work?
By giving your mind a transparent construction, the Two-Checklist Rule helps minimize down on overwhelm and resolution fatigue. As an alternative of gazing a sea of duties with no clear place to begin, you possibly can instantly determine what wants your consideration first. This technique additionally helps launch the strain of unrealistic productiveness, permitting house for relaxation, creativity, and the issues that make life really feel good—not simply productive.
How one can Use the Two-Checklist Rule
Utilizing the Two-Checklist Rule is easy—and that’s the great thing about it. As an alternative of getting misplaced in an amazing, catch-all to-do checklist, this technique helps you prioritize with intention. Right here’s how you can do it:
- Mind Dump Your Duties. Begin by writing down all the pieces you want (or need) to do for the day or week. No filtering but, simply get all of it out.
- Kind Into Two Lists. Undergo your checklist and categorize every process:
- Should-Do: Time-sensitive, high-priority duties that transfer the needle (e.g., submitting a piece challenge, scheduling a health care provider’s appointment, choosing up groceries).
- Good-to-Do: Duties that may be nice to perform however aren’t pressing (e.g., decluttering your closet, making an attempt a brand new recipe, catching up on emails).
- Sort out the Should-Do Checklist First. Deal with finishing these important duties first, giving your self the satisfaction of actual progress.
- Revisit the Good-to-Do Checklist—With out Guilt. When you have additional time or vitality, nice! If not, these duties can wait. No stress, no disgrace.
Professional Tip: Maintain your Should-Do checklist real looking. In the event you overload it, you’ll find yourself proper again the place you began—overwhelmed and exhausted. Prioritization is essential. For instance, final Monday, my Should-Do checklist included ending an article draft and reserving a vet appointment. My Good-to-Do checklist? Deep-cleaning my fridge and eventually responding to a bunch chat. Guess which one needed to wait.
The Advantages of the Two-Checklist Rule
- Decreased Stress: You’ll really feel extra in management and fewer overwhelmed by all the pieces in your plate.
- Guilt-Free Productiveness: The Good-to-Do checklist permits for the flexibleness to chill out with out guilt, realizing you’re prioritizing what issues.
- House for Pleasure: When duties are damaged down into clear classes, you create room for unplanned moments of pleasure and relaxation.
- Work-Life Steadiness: Helps keep that ever-elusive stability between productiveness and private time.
How I’ve Used the Two-Checklist Rule in My Life
For years, my to-do lists felt like an limitless, ever-expanding beast. I wasn’t obsessive about productiveness for productiveness’s sake, however I longed for a way of ease—a solution to transfer via my days with route as a substitute of diving headfirst right into a swirling mess of obligations. I needed to belief that what I used to be prioritizing really mattered, quite than simply ticking off duties for the sake of feeling completed.
At 30, I don’t have youngsters or a accomplice, however my life continues to be full. My friendships, my work, my cats (who, let’s be trustworthy, require loads of consideration), and my inventive hobbies all demand vitality. After which there’s one in all my favourite roles: being an aunt. I wish to be current for my nieces and nephew, displaying up for the large and small moments alike. However when all the pieces seems like a precedence, how do you determine what really is? That’s the place the Two-Checklist Rule modified issues for me. Separating what really should be accomplished from what can be good to do gave me a framework to strategy my days with readability. I began recognizing the duties that moved my targets ahead—whether or not in work, relationships, or private development—and discovered to let go of the guilt round the remaining.
Now, as a substitute of feeling stretched skinny, I can concentrate on what really issues, like making time for FaceTime calls with my niece, deepening my friendships, and deliberately rising my profession.
The Takeaway
I (and lots of others) love and reside by the Two-Checklist Rule due to its ease. By breaking duties into must-do and nice-to-do classes, you’re taking the strain off your self to perform all the pieces directly. As an alternative of feeling paralyzed by an amazing checklist, you achieve readability. You concentrate on what really strikes the needle whereas releasing the guilt of what can wait.
Attempt the Two-Checklist Rule tomorrow. Write down your duties and break up them into must-do and nice-to-do. You would possibly discover that doing much less helps you get extra of the best issues accomplished. Keep in mind, true productiveness isn’t about doing all of it. It’s about doing what issues most.
