I have been mentioning left and right that I would be discussing in detail why you should be using a to-do book however I never got around to actually explaining it until now. Today we’re going beyond the reason of ‘’I simply love them’’ and actually provide you with reasons to use a to-do book that will hopefully change your mind from opting against one. Let me get the obvious out of the way by saying that I am completely addicted to mine and have been an avid user of one since 2017 and I can’t turn back. I’m in too deep.
Before I get into explaining why you should use a daily planner I want to preface this by saying that I have my own to-do book out for sale in the shop as of right now! It is not the exact same one I have been using since 2017 as I have been testing different models and the one online is the one I settled on that worked the best in terms of stimulating efficiency and productivity. This version is the to-do book I have been using since July 2019. So in case you were wondering if I use my own to-do book, the answer is yes I do use my own to-do book everyday!
I have a total of 10 reasons for why you should start using a daily to-do planner as soon as possible. Let’s get started;
10 Reasons To Use A To-Do Book
- A to-do book helps curb being overwhelmed
Perhaps this is a personal reason but I get overwhelmed extremely easily. Especially when I know there are lots of things to do. When getting overwhelmed there’s always this moment when your head just wants to start spinning because you’re trying to grasp the magnitude of all that needs to be done. Sound familiar? At that moment being able to grab my daily to-do book and look at the week planned nicely is a huge moment of relief because I know and I can see that I will get to everything in due time. This makes me feel a lot calmer, releases the grip my mind has on my trachea (windpipe) and gives me back the mental space I need to focus on the task at hand.
- It makes you think about your to-do’s
When you are planning your to-do’s in your to-do book you create an active moment during your week or month, whatever you prefer, to sum up all of your to-do’s for the week/month. This will free up a lot of mental space during your days because you don’t have to try and find out what is next on the list of things you should be doing while in the meantime going off to do something that is not (that) important while having that annoying feeling that you are totally forgetting something potentially important.
- A daily planner helps conquer the little tasks
Incorporating little important tasks in your day planning might be one of the best reasons to use a to-do book, especially for the little things at the end that cost 2 to 3 minutes, you hope/think. Those are the ones that we tend to push aside and not do till the very last minute and then have everything go haywire by accident. These little things could be insignificant such as putting the trash out or very important such as double checking your tax returns before sending them in. Planning them in even though they only take 5 minutes, for example, makes them an active part of your day which helps you actually do them without the unnecessary stress.
- The use of a to-do book allows you to have more free mental space
Having all your tasks written down per month, per week and day in your to-do book means that you can basically forget about them. Not in the sense of you not having to do them because you do but that little song most of us do in morning and night of going through everything that we have to do and seeing whether we can mentally check something off will be made redundant by your to-do book. The thing is the more tired you get the more prone you are to waking up in cold sweat in the middle of the night because you forgot something while going over your mental to-do list. When using your to-do book at the beginning of the day you can check what you planned for the day and go off to do the first one. At the end of the day you just have to check whether you have crossed or ✔ all of them and you can go enjoy the rest of your night in peace.
- Create a system to organize your goal plans
The best way to accomplish your goals is by dividing and conquering a little step at a time. Making a timeline for your goals is great but eventually you need to determine when exactly you work on them which is why your to-do book is helpful. You can schedule the individual steps that you need to take in order to accomplish the goal which gives you a higher chance of actually accomplishing them on a day of the week instead of on the dreaded someday. It becomes especially important when having other responsibilities that can easily dominate your life.
- Gain insight into what you value through analyzing your to-do book
By using a to-do book you can easily get a grip on the things you continuously skip and use that to help you better determine whether these are actually important tasks or that these are tasks you really do not need to do. You can also use this as an experiment to see if you can bundle the tasks or do them at different times of the day.
- Improve your time management skills
Seeing the task you have to do written in your to-do book will stop you from overplanning because you can see the list get longer and longer which will make you stop adding more things on. Eventually this will lead to better time management skills because you are getting active proof of how much you can do in a day.
- You can create more time through using a daily planner
By being more organised you are effectively creating more time to do the things you love doing spontaneously. This is because you know when you should be working on your important tasks thus when something suddenly pops up you can check your to-do list for the day/week/month and see if you can work it in. Another way you are creating more time is by not pushing everything till the very last minute which almost always means that you have to cut into time you allocated for other things. This will also help combat certain bad habits that become ‘’necessary’’ when not planning properly such as not sleeping enough.
- A to-do book helps you create a sense of urgency
Making a list of things you are going to do is a good way to start but if it is just a random list in a notebook you can still allocate the day you are supposed to do the tasks on the list to someday, which is bad. In the to-do book you can allocate all your tasks to a specific day which creates a sense of urgency making you more inclined to finally stop counting on someday and creating the problems mentioned in point 8.
- A to-do book can add to the satisfaction of accomplishing your to-do’s
By writing down your tasks in your to-do book you can, once you finished them, give them a ✔ or a nice *not aggressive at all* strike through. Being able to ✔ or strike through can add to the satisfaction of completing the task greatly. It certainly beats mentally checking it off of your to-do list. Looking back at the end of the day/week/month at what all got done by seeing all of your ✔ or strike throughs gives an even bigger satisfaction than when you did the initial ✔ or strike through.
There you have it 10 reasons to use a to-do book. I hope this helps you decide to try using a to-do book for yourself and have your life changed greatly like mine. If you would like to twin with me and use the one I am using currently you can get it in the My Story Of I shop. There you can get more information about the ins and outs of how the to-do book is set up to help you reach your goals and better your lifestyle.
Plan your plan with your to-do book and do your plan freer of mental clutter.
Love,
DCPR.
Leave a Reply