A Free Productivity Tool Anyone Can Use

After I wrote the article about time management, I thought I should share about a crazily simple tool that you can use to manage your time. I use it myself all the time. 

If we are serious about managing our time better, then we have to adopt a system that can help us do that. And I believe there is no better productivity tool that is free and simple to use that anyone can adopt. 

Enter the checklist. 

Do you list? 

Just today, I used an app to make a checklist for groceries. That made sure I never forgot to get eggs and milk. I was in and out of the grocer at the snap of Thanos’ finger, because I stuck to my list.

I also use checklists for work. I’ve listed down my action plan for the day of what I wanted to accomplish. I also checked off the action items on my larger projects using a project management app Trello. I just can’t think of any better way to get things done. 

Lists are everywhere. They are also used by everyone. 

Everyone who has every tried to achieve something significant has created a list. A football manager somewhere would have used lists to plan on winning the World Cup. A business plan somewhere is being executed line-by-line, action by action using a list. 

Lists are powerful. Lists can help you achieve great things. 

The True Power of a Todo List 

The power of a checklist is when you get stuff done.

Rather than checklists, I much prefer to call them todo lists. It’s about stuff you need to do. 

Most todo apps today are based on the basic system created by David Allen called Getting Things Done or GTD. I will probably go into a deep dive of that in the future, but the basics of the system is recording all tasks & projects on a capturing tool (such as a list) and breaking it down to actionable steps. 

These are the main benefits of making a list (in the format, of course, of a list): 

1. Breaking down large projects into actionable chunks
2. Find out what to prioritise now and what to defer later
3. Plan your resources around what needs to be done
4. Align your actions to a greater goal or purpose
5. Narrow your focus to work on important things
6. Helps you not forget what to do
7. Give you a sense of accomplishment 
8. Align other people to your tasks and projects
9. Give an overview of the task at hand

Clearly by now you know the benefits of a todo list. Have you used one? In my next article, I’ll share about how you can make the most of a todo list and the tools that I use to do it. 

Go get listing and get things done!