Chores (or general mega to do) List 2 - Sticky Note To-Do list v.2

It's Saturday again - which means chore time for me.

You may recall I said in my previous post on this (Chores (or general mega to do)  List 1 - Sticky Note To-Do list) that I said I had 2 options I had thought of. Well, let's forget counting because I find that as you try one option, depending on the success you have with it, you end up finding ways to improve the method.

As I have done below...

Did anyone try it out at home? Leave comments below and let me know how it went and if you have any ways to make it better for you.

You see - it worked GREAT for the "today" and "tomorrow" sections on Saturday.

By the end of the day several Today tasks had been moved either to underneath the "this month" section for the next time they'd be needed or thrown away because they were one-offs. What hadn't been done remained on "today" and some of the "tomorrow" bits were moved up to "today" - ideally they ALL would have, but the beauty of this method is that you can reassess what you can realistically achieve on a daily basis. 

It worked quite well for Sunday also, but some tasks being taken off and moved up as appropriate for Monday. Well. That's when it all went wrong, because my problem is that when I come home after a long day of work - trust me it's a long busy day - I tend to focus on work related activities (currently I'm working on improving our team action log in Excel and there's just no time to do that in the office, particularly as I'm learning all the Excel and Visual Basic tips and codes as I go along). So basically, I did almost nothing, until the next weekend when it was revived temporarily and then it just became redundant again.

SO I'm  bringing it BACK! BETTER than ever! ( i hope ? )

Sticky Note To Do List v 2

Step 1 - Write all of your tasks/goals down on a list

Step 2 -  Break each task down into subtasks

Step 3 - Where possible, break each subtask down further

Step 4 - Next to each finalised subtask, write down how long each subtask should take - Make sure you include any rest time needed after any strenuous task (for example, my mom and dad's room has some stiff dense carpet and our dyson is exhausting on that one room, so I like to have a 10 minute time out after!)

Step 5 - On a surface (piece of paper, wall, floor, cupboard door, whatever), put down column headings based on the estimated times for each subtask, eg "Less than 5 mins" "5-10 mins" "10-30 mins" "30 mins-1 hr" "Over 1 hour" or whatever suits

Step 5 - If you like, you can break the columns down into sections for when the tasks will be done, eg, today, tomorrow, this week, this month. I did.

Step 6 - Write the subtasks down on sticky notes of your choice. You can colour code them by task if you need to, and number them so that you keep them in order, eg all of the bathroom cleaning tasks can be blue but numbered in the order they can be done, so you'd hoover before you mopped

Step 7 - Put the sticky note where it belongs on the table you made et voila

Step 8 - read this blogpost by MoneySavingMom - a few extracts:

"Set yourself up for success by creating a short to do list for each day. I suggest no more than 5-7 items on your list."

 "Use Your Minutes WiselyIf you want to have more productivity and efficiency in your life, you need to become the master of your minutes. If you find yourself with a short two-minute window of time, don’t just twiddle your thumbs. Do something."

That's where the "less than 5 min" header becomes invaluable. Just while waiting for all of my pics to upload for this blog post I knocked off 4 less than 5 minuters - it was so motivating I even started on a 30 min-1 hour task, why not. I wasn't even planning on doing that till today.

MoneySavingMom even has a 2-minute to-do suggestion list to inspire you!

I reckon this method will be a godsend for getting quick tasks done after work - something is better than nothing!

Step 9 - Do the To Dos! Then either throw the sticky note away, put it in the section where you'll need to do them again or but them right at the bottom for standby. 

Voila! 

With this, even us lazy so and sos can get stuff done. Too busy playing candy crush? Well you have to wait half an hour for a fresh life ... do a chore, or 5!

I wonder what I'll think of next... don't forget to comment!