Create Will-Do Lists to Manage Huge Task Inventories

Lifehacker reader and mental state blogger Luciano writes about his main problem with creating a master task list, in the style of Getting Things Done: The “giant blob of threatening commitments” they can become after awhile. To keep a level head and get a daily feeling of accomplishment, he recommends the following:

Take your to-do list and pick a few tasks that you will do the next day: not tasks that you want to do, or tasks that you think you might do — but tasks that you wholeheartedly commit to do. Replace your long list of intentions with a short list of commitments.

It’s a different angle than Trent at the Simple Dollar’s takes to managing a huge commitments list, and one that still gives you two reassurances—that everything you will eventually have to do is captured somewhere, and that you have a daily guide as to what to do next. For yet another alternative GTD path, try tackling next problems instead of next actions. Photo by purpleslog.