Make Your Daily Life Easier with a To-Do List

Managing your home in the middle of life’s busyness is easier with the help of a to-do list.

I’m a list maker. I make lists for everyday. I make lists for what needs done around my house. I make lists for long-term goals. And I make lists with small action steps to accomplish these goals. You can find these lists – always made on paper – all around my house.

You see, as I try to manage my home (and life!) in the middle of everyday busyness, I’ve found the only way I can stay on track is with the help of to-do lists.

I need to write down my chores and commitments – or I’ll forget about them.

I’ve tried to go through my days without a list, but I forget what I need to do. Even when I have a good routine in place and a workable housekeeping strategy, if something as basic as laundry isn’t written down, I’ll unintentionally skip it.

Instead of being frustrated with my forgetfulness, I try to give myself grace. I realize I’m busy. I realize everyday life – and parenting! – distracts me from basic chores. So I compensate for my reality with lists.

If you could use some help in creating or fine-tuning your own to-do lists, here’s what has worked really well for me:

When do I make a list?

On weekends, I try to map out my coming week with daily to-do lists:

I check my calendar for meetings, appointments and other commitments. I add them to my daily lists.
Then I think about what I need to do in the week. I add it to my daily lists.
Then I think about what I’d like to try to fit in – and add it.

Every night, I look at my list for the next day. Sometimes it needs completely changed. Sometimes I need to add things I didn’t finish. And sometimes, it looks just fine.

By taking the time to make your list – and then tweaking it when you need to – you can have a good idea of what your day might look like ahead of time. At the very least, you’ll have a basic direction for your day.

How I structure my lists

Depending on my day, my list may be fairly unstructured – I think of a basic order of when I should do things, and write them down.

For example, a typical day’s basic to-do list might look like:

Time with God
Write blog post
Dishes and laundry
Homeschooling
Put away etc. around teh house

But on a really, really busy day – if I’m preparing for company, planning a deep cleaning day, trying to purge to create more of a haven, or preparing for vacation, I’ll break up my day’s chores into morning afternoon and evening chores like this:

Morning

Time with God

Call doctor

Dishes

Laundry

Clean bathroom

Clean fridge

Afternoon

Weed garden

Drop off recycling

Pay bills

More laundry

Evening

Return texts and respond to e-mails

Clean up the house

Put laundry away

I’ve noticed that some days my plans are much more ambitious than they should be – and I’d need about 40 hours in a day to get everything done. Unless I’m miraculously having a Superwoman kind of day and somehow manage to fit everything in, I need to try to do my tasks on a different day. It’s OK.

The point of a to-do list, though, is to serve as a reminder of what we want to try to do. It’s not a rigid checklist – just a helpful reminder. If you don’t accomplish everything in a day, simply move your goals to another day later in the week.

When you do complete a task, enjoy the huge feeling of accomplishment when you cross it off. On some days, that accomplishment’s enough to add a little pep and encouragement to keep going.

How often do you use a to-do list? Are you overly ambitious with your lists … or fairly realistic?

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Hilary

Hilary Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, homeschooling mama, and writer who helps women experience God's perfect peace in messy, imperfect life. She's happiest when she's hosting friends and family for dinner, going on date nights with her husband, singing along to the radio, traveling with her family, and spending cozy nights at home. The author of fifteen books,Hilary also is Women's Ministry Director at The Chapel in Green, Ohio.