4 Types of To-Do Lists to Skyrocket Your Productivity

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Do you have a clear plan for your day when you wake up? Most people probably have an outline. For example, you might have work, classes, and study periods. Devoting sizeable blocks of your day to certain activities is common — and helpful.

But you probably aren’t achieving peak productivity if you are uncertain about the tasks to focus on during these blocks.

Without a micro-level plan, you are likelier to fall into productivity-zapping habits like procrastination or multitasking. These behaviors can lead to cognitive overload, which:

Behavioral psychologists believe one of the underlying reasons for this is the Zeigarnik effect. Named after 20th-century psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, the Zeigarnik effect happens when the brain continuously recalls an unfinished task [2]. The video below notes some everyday instances of the Zeigarnik effect, from cliffhangers in movies to clickbait article titles.

The Zeigarnik effect helps remind us to finish incomplete tasks. However, continual thoughts about other tasks can interrupt your focus on your present task. It’s like having too many tabs open in a web browser. It takes considerable energy and ultimately lowers your productivity.

Thankfully, we can counter the Zeigarnik effect by transferring the work of remembering our tasks from our brains to a paper-based or digital system. An example of such a system is a to-do list. It’s one of the most effective ways to organize and manage tasks [3].

Why to-do lists work

In his book Getting Things Done, famed author and productivity expert David Allen describes the connection between overwhelm and task overload. As incomplete tasks accumulate, the Zeigarnik effect increases, and thus, so does stress [4]. In contrast, well-written to-do lists reduce the Zeigarnik effect and anxiety [5].

Further, to-do lists also:

4 types of to-do lists and when to use them

While transferring content from your brain to an external source helps to reduce overload, it won’t necessarily improve your productivity [8]. For example, the most basic to-do list (essentially a list of uncompleted tasks) isn’t effective for task completion. A better strategy is to combine several types of to-do lists that serve distinct purposes into one comprehensive productivity system.

Here are four types of to-do lists that can work well in any combination.

The brain dump list

Brain dumps are a writing activity that encourages us to transfer anything occupying space in our minds to an external format. Brain dump to-do lists are free-flowing and non-strategic. You don’t need to organize the tasks or estimate the time or energy that each requires. Instead, just list all the tasks on your mind.

Once everything is on paper or a device, you can add structure. For example, organize tasks by categories like:

Inside these categories, you can order tasks based on:

Here’s an example:

Even after refining your brain dump, you shouldn’t use it to plan your day. That’s because this to-do list doesn’t consider factors that can impact a task’s importance, such as deadlines or competing responsibilities.

However, brain dumps make an excellent feeder list for other to-do list strategies.

The 3-item to-do list

A reason why to-do lists fail to improve productivity is that we assign ourselves too many tasks. It may seem productive to schedule multiple tasks and projects, but we actually perform best when we focus on fewer tasks at a time [9].

In the book Getting Results the Agile Way, author J.D. Meier applies this finding in his productivity approach, the Rule of 3. Rather than tackling a lengthy to-do list, he suggests selecting just three tasks every day.

You can select your three top tasks based on several factors, including:

Ideally, your top three tasks for the day should help you make notable progress in your projects and overall goals.

The to-schedule list

While the 3-item to-do list focuses on what you will complete today, what about all the other important tasks from your brain dump? This is where the to-schedule list comes in.

You can organize tasks by urgency and priority and slot them into the 3-item to-do list for upcoming days. Then, you can pair the to-schedule list with a time-blocking strategy to quickly identify the best days and times to complete each task.

For example, you could block out two hours at the end of your workday and three hours on weekends for household tasks. This provides clarity about when you will finish these tasks. Also, you’ll now know that upcoming free periods in your schedule can be reserved for other tasks.

To use a to-schedule list effectively, here are some key points to consider:

The to-don’t list

Productivity is not guaranteed even with the best, most strategic to-do list. That’s because to-do lists don’t stop us from engaging in time-consuming distractions. To-do lists alone are also not super motivating, especially if many of our tasks are important but uninteresting.

For this reason, making a to-don’t list is just as important for productivity as a to-do list. A to-don’t list reminds you of behaviors you should avoid to stay on track and complete your three main objectives for the day.

Here are some to-don’t list examples:

The items on your to-don’t list might only apply when you’re working on your to-do list, or be habits that you would like to implement in your everyday life. Conversely, you can transfer tasks from your to-don’t list to your to-do list at a later point in time. 

For example, a marketing manager might put checking social media on their to-don’t list on a day full of meetings and tight deadlines. However, since checking social media is an important part of their work, they will probably schedule that task as a to-do for a different day. 

Either way, reminding yourself of what you shouldn’t spend your time and energy on is a great way to improve your focus and your productivity.