Get your to-do items done, ASAP!

I have been experimenting with a couple of to-do list setups and this is a quick summary:

The open-ended to-do list

Items are listed without dates and you work off the top of the list. When new items are added, you decide where it stands in priority relative to the other items. You reprioritize as the situation demands.

Pros

• Very easy to add items.
• Just work off the top of the list (assuming it is prioritized).

Cons

• No dates assigned result in deadlines not being reflected.
• There is no indication when items slip.
• Does not create a sense of urgency for the most important items.

The tightly-fitted to-do list

Every item has a date and the date signifies when something needs to be worked on. You can optionally add another date to indicate when something is due. If something does not make it for a date, you change the date to a new date (most probably the next day).

Pros

• Know exactly when to do something and when it is due
• Easy to prioritize.

Cons

• When things slip (and they will!), you move them to a different date and after a while, you could be indifferent to items just being pushed to a future date.
• Dates for downstream items may have to change too as things move.

A happy medium - The ASAP to-do List

When the original assigned date <= current date, mark them as ASAP. The rest of the to-do list can remain within their respective future start dates. Your focus now is to just work through your ASAP list ASAP! As your ASAP list grows, you know you have a lot to do. When your ASAP list dwindled, you know you're making progress. You are not distracted by future items since you have pre-determined when you have to start working on them. ASAP creates a sense of urgency for the most important items on your to-do list.

I will keep experimenting with this and report any tweaks to optimize it.

p.s.: This article got done because it was tagged as ASAP!