Ramadan Journal 2016: Day 20 – List

This time of year – with the last days of Ramadan upon us and Eid approaching, lists are a life saver for me. They allow me to write down everything I need to do and clear my head. This allows me to focus on prayer. They help put some structure around my thoughts and assuage the anxiety around all of the things I have to do and haven’t done yet.

My to do list changes regularly, sometimes appearing in my Filofax, sometimes a Word document, sometimes a rough exercise book and sometimes on index cards that end up in my Filofax. I have my to–do list for the days which can include anything from my dinner menu, ingredients I need, household chores and day-to-day errands. I have my list for an occasion – so for Eid I have one for my Eid menu, one for my Eid party, an invite list and a list of things I have to do and buy to be ready in time. I have lists of things to blog about and book reviews to write. 

Sometimes I add a few chores for the day, such as in the Filofax:

Occasionally I will do a brain dump, using my rough exercise book.

Sometimes when I know I need to get things done and there is too much, I will use the quadrant method I have shared before (here). Using this I spit the to-do list into Urgent, Important, Day-to-Day and Would Like to Do. This helps me to prioritise the most important and pressing things I have to do and defer the rest if I need to without worrying too much. 

It sounds like way too many lists, but it’ definitely better written down or typed up than in my head.

At the moment I have been listing everything on my quadrant, and making mini lists on index cards for Eid activities. These are going into my Filofax because many of them don’t need any action until next week.

What system do you use for getting things done? Do you rely on lists too or do you prefer to take a more laid back or natural approach to prioritising what you need to do each day?