3 to-do list tricks that help me get more done in less time
Will a to do list change your life? No. Is it a useful tool that most of us can benefit from? Absolutely.
Because we’ve all been there: a never-ending list of tasks, a million things on our mind, and the overwhelming feeling that we just can’t keep up. Whether it’s work, personal goals, or home responsibilities, staying organized and productive can feel like a constant uphill battle.
But here’s the good news: to-do lists can make a massive difference. The trick isn’t just about writing down everything you need to do, it’s about knowing how to use to-do lists in a way that actually helps you get things done, stay focused, and be more productive.
Here’s the thing though - it’s easy to say use a to do list and not realize that there are so many different types of to do lists and they all have pros and cons that you can leverage for the specific goal or situation you’re working with.
In this post, I want to share five powerful to-do list methods that I personally love and use periodically (or very regularly) to help me manage my tasks, be more productive in less time and actually get sh*t done.
How to Use To-Do Lists to Make You Better at Life
All to do lists are not created equal. The key is to think about what the natural inclination you might be feeling at the time and what is the goal behavior. Usually our “natural” behavior is a code for “comfortable” and sometimes “lazy.”
The more we understand that our bodies are always trying to encourage us to be comfortable because that keeps us safe (in the body’s eyes), the more we can deal with those lesser urges with compassion versus beating ourselves up.
Think about it this way - your pancreas doesn’t deeply care about your professional fulfillment and your quadriceps aren’t losing sleep about whether you’re living out your dream life in a dream home. They care that you are fed, rested and have enough energy to run if danger were to come after you.
Our body is going to naturally be inclined for us to do as little as possible to conserve our energy. Of course, we know that approach isn’t going to lead to a satisfying life.
So our job is to work with our brains and body to encourage the behaviors that we want.
Each of these approaches have a different use so you don’t have to choose one you like most, instead thinking about having all of these in your toolbox and you can pull them each out when you need that type of focus.
1. Brain Dump and Organize Approach
This is probably the method I use most frequently, maybe because this former overachiever eldes daughter brain tends to take on more than she can chew. If you’ve ever had that feeling of having a thousand things swirling around in your brain, you know how exhausting it can be. That’s where the brain dump comes in.
What It Is: A brain dump is exactly what it sounds like: you get everything that’s on your mind and put it on paper (or in a digital note). Don’t worry about organizing it at first, that literally defeats the point of the brain dump, just get it all out. This could include tasks, ideas, reminders, or even random thoughts that have been distracting you. If you feel like you’re having to use mental energy to remember it, put it on the page
How It Helps: By putting everything down in front of you, it frees up mental space, and you can finally stop trying to juggle so many things at once. This method is perfect for when you feel overwhelmed and need to clear your head so you can focus on the important stuff.
How to Use It:
Brain Dump: Take five minutes (or more or less) and write down everything you need to do. No judgment or organizing, just write. Even if it's stuff like "buy groceries" or "email Sarah about the meeting," get it all out.
Organize: Once your brain is cleared, you can take a few more minutes to organize the tasks into categories. There are a couple different ways to do this:
Timing/Urgency: What needs to be done soon? What are the items that you just don’t need to forget? I tend to break my lists up into “Today,” “This Week,” “Soon” and “Someday”
Project: Group similar tasks together for different areas of your life or projects you’re working on - for me, this might look like “Home” contain all the things around the house and errands you need to do, “Marketing”my might contain my social media tasks and writing my email newsletter and “Super secret project” might contain the tasks for the super secret project I’m working on ;)
Size of Task: For more efficiency, you can group tasks by easy to complete and bigger, chunkier projects so you can look at the lists and decide which big projects you can reasonably complete on given days and/or use the dead time between meetings to knock out a few smaller tasks
Notes: I like to do this on Sunday evenings if I’m feeling the scaries to help myself feel a bit more in control of the week ahead or often, the first thing I do on Monday morning to organize my thoughts about what needs to get done in the week.
2. Eat the Frog Method
I hate the name but it is quite a powerful visual here. Inspired by Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog, this method focuses on tackling the most challenging, high-priority task first thing in your day.
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you sit down at your desk knowing the most important thing for you to do that day and then proceed to find seventeen million things you “should knock out” before you dive into it. Obviously there’s some mental resistance to the task because it seems too big, difficult, or downright unpleasant. This approach to a to do list is focused on attacking this head on.
What It Is: The "frog" is the task you’ve been avoiding or the one that feels the most difficult. It’s the one that, if completed, would make everything else feel like a breeze. The idea is that if you tackle the hardest task first thing, the rest of your day will feel much lighter.
How It Helps: It helps you avoid procrastination by focusing on one big task early. When you eat the frog, you free yourself from dread and gain confidence for the rest of your day.
How to Use It:
Identify your "frog"—the task you dread the most, the one you’ve been putting off, or the most important task of the day.
Make it your first priority. Don’t check emails, don’t get distracted—just focus on that one big task.
Once you’ve completed it, the rest of your day will feel more manageable and productive and speaking from experience, you’ll feel the ball rolling down hill wanting to knock off a bunch of other things that now feel like a breeze.
Notes: It’s useful to pay attention to patterns here if there are certain tasks that seem to always be coming up as your frogs to eat and see if there’s ways you can make adjustments to these tasks so they don’t loom so large - maybe break them up into smaller bites or make a routine out of working from your favorite coffee shop or getting your favorite breakfast bite to pair positive associations to make these tasks less daunting!
3. Chunking Method
Large tasks can feel daunting, and that’s often why we put them off. If you’re trying to figure out how to use to-do lists to tackle big projects, the chunking method is a great option.
I find that even with tasks I’ve done a million times, if they’re too big, they still get stuck on my to do list (or end up being a frog that’s even still too overwhelming to tackle).
One of the big explanations for procrastination is that your mind doesn’t feel capable of managing the task. This method is a great way to break down that barrier.
What It Is: Chunking is all about breaking down larger, overwhelming tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. Instead of writing down "film videos," you might break it down into "research topics," "script three videos," "film video 1," and so on.
How It Helps: This method helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by giving you clear, actionable steps. It makes big tasks feel more doable and helps you make consistent progress. It also gives you more immediate dopamine hits of feeling like you make progress even while you’re still part way through the task.
How to Use It:
Start with the large task you’ve been avoiding or just know is overwhelming (e.g., "Build presentation").
Ask yourself if you needed to break it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces like you were going to explain it to a new employee, what would the steps be to completing this task (e.g., "review brief" "draft outline," "research annual stats,” “build first draft,” etc.).
Tackle each sub-task one at a time. You’ll start to feel a sense of accomplishment with each small step.
Notes: This method can be really helpful for getting you going but pay attention that you aren’t always starting and not finishing the larger tasks. This is good info about which tasks feel gnarliest for you and should be a clue to treat those tasks as frogs to eat at the beginning of your day (or tomorrow if you’re working through the task). While chunking things down is powerful to get you going, we don’t want it to become an avoidance technique!
4. Power Hour Method
There’s always a list of little tasks that seem to pile up over time—things like answering emails, making quick phone calls, or updating documents.
These tasks show up two ways for me:
The little things that occur to me in the shower that I stress out about forgetting and end up lingering over my head in random moments and disappearing every time I start to write a to do list
The tasks I jump to do when I’m procrastinating something bigger and more difficult, these tasks can become temptations that I use to avoid doing the harder thing I really need to do.
Enter the Power Hour method. This technique is perfect to help avoid task switching that we know hurts our productivity and relieves the lingering stress around making sure that we remember all those little things.
What It Is: The Power Hour method is as simple as keeping a running list of smaller tasks in a the same place all the time that you add to throughout the week and then dedicating Power Hours each week to knock them all out. It’s a great way to stop procrastinating on those minor tasks that can quickly pile up and to not fill in space throughout the week when you should be focusing on bigger things.
How It Helps: Instead of dealing with a few small tasks at random times every day, the Power Hour method lets you group them together and tackle them in one focused session. You get everything done at once, freeing up more time for important tasks and I find that it’s generally more time effective when you’re in that logistics mode anyway.
How to Use It:
Throughout the week, keep a list of small tasks you’ve been procrastinating on (e.g., returning calls, answering quick emails) - it’s crucial that this list is all in one place and you know where it is. Something like a note on your phone can be perfect where it takes two clicks to get there so even if you’re on the go, the task gets captured.
Schedule Power Hours each week. I’m talking booked on the calendar protected time to get things done. If you reschedule Power Hours for other important meetings, you’ll undermine the destressing part of this habit so keep the promise to yourself. If you don’t have a full hour worth to do, you can give yourself the time back.
When it’s time to Power Hour, lock in and try to knock out as many as you can within the hour. You can use it like a competition with yourself to see how many you can get done in the allotted time.
Notes: I find that twice a week works best for me because once a week meant that some of the little tasks needed to get done more quickly than my next Power Hour and I try to schedule them at times when I’m not my most productive like Monday and Friday afternoons.
How to be more productive
To-do lists aren’t going to get the work done on their own and they can be a temptation to feel productive without actually getting the most important stuff done. But if you can be self-aware about your productivity habits, to do lists are an asset.
The key to being more productive relies on your ability to coach yourself toward your goals. Whether it’s getting the hardest task done first, which will give you the dopamine spike you can ride the rest of the day or calming a chaotic mind with a brain dump, paying attention not just to what needs to get done but what your natural tendencies might be in the moment and how you can work with them.
If you combine this with other productivity strategies, like external accountability (checking in with your manager weekly on what you’ve gotten done) or good incentives (you get to buy yourself a new workout set every month you stick with your 3x weekly workouts), to do lists can help you manage your to do list and feel more productivity.
Because we’re not hustle culture fanatics around here - we want to get the stuff that needs to done, feel good while doing it and then sit back and enjoy the rest of our lives not stressing. Any productivity tips that helps us be more efficient at work is a win for me!
