Calendar or To Do? Are You Confused Too?
Have you got yourself into a state of not knowing whether your calendar or task list is more important, which to choose as a priority, or whether to combine them both?
Do you keep spending on costly paper systems and apps trying to perfect the ultimate organization system?
In this article, I discuss the differences between calendars and To do’s or Tasks, and the purposes of them both.
Keeping your life organized: What do you do?
Many of us struggle with finding the perfect system to organize ourselves. We look at role-models who seem to always get the job done and wonder “How do they do it?”
We see images or hear snippets of someone seeming to be following an approach that works successfully and contributes to their amazing success.
Sometimes we just must put things in perspective.
Calendars, diaries, schedules, timetables, To Do’s and Tasks, whether they be hand-written, printed, or electronic, are tools. Tools help you to get your job done, either efficiently or inefficiently.
Some highly successful people, prefer a good old list of To Do’s and Tasks, while others prefer a calendar where they schedule everything. So, what works best and is anyone more successful as a result?
Well, that’s a matter of opinion and style. Keep in mind that many successful ventures have been written on the back of a scrap of paper.
Some of us need structure and organization, a method to our madness, and some thrive on madness and just hack things out.
What’s a Calendar for?
Calendars are very much time-based and often place-based, you can plan and see exactly when you are scheduled for a particular meeting, appointment, call, lesson, or event and block out that time. This means you can prepare for travel time and any resources or set-ups you require, wherever your engagement might be.
For specific activities which require low or intense focus, you can schedule the space to get on and get the job moving, and hopefully done. You can set out one-off, multiple, or ongoing, recurring sessions with the time-blocks in sight.
You can plan for contingencies by blocking out further possible timeslots when things don’t quite go as you expected.
Here’s when to put events onto your calendar:
Use your calendar slots for tasks that take a reasonable chunk out of your day, anywhere from a good 20-minutes, or so.
Schedule events on a calendar that involve a block of time, a location that requires time to get to, a task that involves planned preparation, a meeting with another or other people, a deadline with a presentation or submission at the end, a required record of what you’ve been doing in the past and present, and what is planned for the future.
What’s a To Do or Task list for?
Lists are easily checkable and follow a flow, often from the first task to the last.
Tasks from a list can be very specific, such as “Ring my doctor a 2 p.m. to make an appointment” to very general, such as “Holiday in Canada.”
You may have lists to call people, lists of future business ideas, lists of people who can help you, lists of dreams, lists of ideas, and lists of things you want to collect. The most recent trend is a “Bucket” list of things you want to achieve in life.
Once they are complete, you tick them off.
These lists inform your calendar and schedule. Think of a list as a sequence of steps toward a goal. One step to sorting out a managerial problem at work is to schedule a meeting with the individuals involved. Once I have a time that everyone can make, I schedule it on the calendar. This appointment may lead to further tasks and goals that I and my colleagues need to follow.
If a task is an end goal and is vague, we need to step back to each preceding milestone and break it down into manageable chunks.
Remember the old SMART strategy to make each step/task attainable:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound
Lists can be purposeful, whimsical, or just a fantasy. What makes them a To Do or Task list is when they have the purpose, importance and a deadline.
To Do’s can turn abstract lists into concrete actions. They create an order that you’ve personally sorted into what’s truly important, and when it must be achieved.
You have prioritized outcomes and make yourself responsible for their completion, or irresponsible for their incompletion.
Sometimes your lists don’t work because they are simply:
Too vague and unspecific to be put into steps
Not prioritized into what’s important and what’s unimportant
Not prioritized into what’s urgent and what’s unurgent
Overwhelming in the number of things you have listed
Too mixed up with a cross-over of work and personal life tasks
Not sorted into life categories and projects
Here’s when you should put tasks on your To Do’s:
You don’t have an exact date or deadline; therefore, you can’t schedule it on a calendar.
When you only need a reminder of activities that are quick to fulfil, such as photocopying information, a quick discussion or a task that can be completed in passing.
Remember
A To Do list does not account for time without determined tweaking, a calendar naturally does.
To Do lists need management and refinement to make them actionable and achievable, a calendar naturally gives you plotted points of time to achieve and block off moments to get things done.
Both a Calendar and a To Do list can cause you stress if you don’t separate what is important and urgent form what is just ‘busywork’ and unimportant. Learn to assert yourself and say “No!” to aspects of your life that are unimportant and not your responsibility.
Calendars and To Do’s can serve you or frustrate you if you fail to meet what you outline. Often, we over or underestimate our capabilities. We should not beat ourselves up if we do.
Calendars and To Do’s are tools. You do not need the perfect system. If you only had a pencil and a piece of paper, you could likely achieve the same as someone else with expensive, intricate planning software.
Effort, action, aspiration, and inspiration are more important than the tools you have at your disposal.
In Conclusion
In short, Calendars are time-based and strategic, To Do lists are task driven and not necessarily bound to a time.
If I only had one tool at my disposal, I’d choose a calendar. With a calendar and careful thinking and planning, I can schedule my To Do’s into actionable steps on certain days. Not all of them will necessarily be time-bound but be completed on a certain day when it’s convenient.
After trying all sorts of methods, I personally use the native, free apps that sync across my phone and laptop, plus common, free calendars like google:
A calendar for events
Notes for unstructured lists, which I can prioritize later
And a Reminders app for my To Do’s and tasks that prompt me based on date, time, location, or recurrence. I can add tasks simply by speaking into my phone.
Whether you opt for a paper and pen diary or organizer, or digital apps, use the tool that assists you to act and don’t waste your valuable time seeking a “perfect” solution.
To throw a final organizing system in the mix, a good friend of mine manages a successful logistics business using “Post It” notes stuck in order of time from left to right and proximity. “Post It” notes are how she organizes everything in her life. She needs to see her ideas pinned up in front of her, rather than in a closed diary with pages or on a digital screen.
What then is your personal choice for what truly works best for you? (and not for someone else!)
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