How To Make A Task List

Have you ever gone somewhere only to forget what you were doing there in the first place? A great way to avoid such problems is by writing a daily “to do list” also referred to as a task list.
A task list works somewhat as an inventory tool/alternative memory, it helps you to remember things without remembering them (i.e cognitively speaking). A good task list will enable your mind to forget about the particular things you wrote down in order to focus on other, perhaps more important issues.

Benefits

Helps you stake out your goals.
Saves time, energy and stress.
Gives you something more to rely on than just your memory.

Methodology

There are two good ways to format your task list and they could be combined.

The first way of doing it is by applying the so called ABC method. You divide your tasks into those that go under the 'A' category (tasks that should be accomplished within a day) the 'B' category (accomplished withing a week) and 'C' category (withing a month) and so forth. You can expand or reduce the set of categories (as well as edit their respective time frame) to what suits your situation.

Another way formating your task list is by assigning each task a number in accordance to its importance. The number “1” is the highest priority while 2 is less important and so on. If you for instance give the reading of my blog a number 1 and eating breakfast a number 2,
then this means that reading the blog precedes eating breakfast; the smaller the number > the more highly prioritized it is (and reading my blog is of course highly prioritized).

Further Notes

Get A Weekly Calendar: These are great to help you keep track on what to do and when to do what. Remember to classify each task into its relevant category, all educational related tasks go under one category, all the personal to another and so forth.

Digital Task Lists: If you tend to sit on the computer a lot then you might want to consider making your desktop background into a to do list (the writing of this article was on my desktop to do list), if you would like to do this without changing your present background you could always divide the picture into two halves. One half showing todays tasks and the other showing your background picture. An easier and more effective way is to simply download Google sidebar, it comes with a to do list in widget form and it's very easy to customize.

Helpful resources

FREE Study Tips- Sign up for our FREE Newsletter and receive tons of study tips!
Download Task list v.5.1 - Free task list software
Printable To Do List - A printable to do list in pdf format.
Google Sidebar - A very useful sidebar program (comes with Google Desktop).
Keeping deadlines - Article discussing how to keep deadlines.

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