Episode 69: Sorting the Chaos: Simple Ways to Organize Your To-Do List
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
A brain dump feels great—until you’re staring at a mile-long to-do list with absolutely no idea where to start. In this episode, Katelyn shares a simple approach to categorizing your list, so it becomes a practical tool instead of an overwhelming reminder of everything on your plate. You’ll learn how to sort tasks by roles, responsibilities, and timing, so you can move from a brain dumped list to daily action with clarity and confidence.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm excited to talk to you today about an OG topic that we covered very early on in the podcast. One of the first episodes was all about the power of a simple to-do list. If you haven't listened to that episode, I'll drop it in the show notes, which you can grab at any time at themothernurture.com/podcast.
And in this episode, I wanna take that a step further because I've gotten this question actually several times in the last few weeks. And so I wanted to address it here. And that is the question of how do you categorize your to-do list? So we can all acknowledge that it's important to get things out of our heads.
We want to clear the space. We want to put all of those things that we have floating around in our head, or as Glennon Doyle calls it, the ticker that is constantly running across the bottom of the screen with the things that we can't forget we need to do. We know we wanna put those somewhere so that we don't have to carry it around and remember it all.
But what stops a lot of you from doing that or doing that and using that list is the question that comes next once you get it out. Once it is on a piece of paper in a to-do app, I don't know, on a note on your phone. It can be really overwhelming to look at, and then , if you don't know what to do with it, from there you might think, well, what's the point?
I'm just gonna spend a bunch of time downloading, brain dumping all of these things, but then what do I do with it? Because while it does feel good to to get it all out, if you don't take action from that list. It can sometimes end up feeling worse because then you just see it all and you know that you're probably not gonna do anything about it or do anything with it because you don't know how to sift through it.
So I wanna give you my in the moment thoughts on categorizing or sorting that big long to-do list so that you can take action so that it does become not just an overwhelming list of things that you could do, but something that you know how to use as a tool to help you get things done.
Now, I say in the moment, thoughts on how to categorize because my process is always changing. I am very open and transparent about the fact that my systems behind the scenes aren't perfect. Some weeks they work better than others. They can get messy during seasons where I just don't have the time to maintain them, and that is okay.
I think that our tools and the way that we do things, our routines should evolve through different seasons of life, or for me, as I learn new tricks or ways of doing things, or I just discover that what I'm doing isn't working as well as perhaps another way. Now you have to be careful because that can be a time cost in and of itself if you are constantly changing things.
I don't wanna give you the impression that every week I'm reinventing the wheel or trying a new strategy. I am talking, I maybe do this on a yearly basis where I make some changes or I make one small shift as the season changes. Like right now we're in back to school season, so a few things have shifted.
I'm not spending a bunch of time creating and recreating processes. That's not what I'm talking about. But I do just wanna be upfront and honest with you that what I share today might change in six months or a year, and that's okay.
What I'm sharing here is a way to think about your list because there is no right way to actually create it. , just like there's no right way of where you keep it or store it. So I hope that you can take some ideas or some inspiration from what I share here and then tweak things to work for you.
That's really what it's all about. That's how I work with my clients on any type of system or process. I love to share a menu of options or ideas and then help you find what is going to work best from you, and maybe it's pulling from a couple of different strategies and adding your own touch to it.
Now the goal with any to-do list is to be able to use it to decide what you want to take care of next, or what you wanna take care of today or this week, or this month. So categorizing things will help you be able to make those decisions faster.
Categorizing helps you look at different themes and take several different data points into consideration as you make your choice. Now I wanna give you an unrelated example to explain how I think about this and, and let's choose a fun one that doesn't quite feel so maybe stressful or overwhelming as your big brain dumped to-do list.
Now, hopefully if you've been around for a while, y'all know that I am a big reader. I read a hundred plus books a year. I love it. I could talk about books all the time. If you ever want a book recommendation, please reach out. , I read all sorts of things. Definitely love my romance and fantasy, but I read memoirs and nonfiction and historical fiction and contemporary fiction, so you name it.
, I've probably, if not read it, I've heard of it, or I'm thinking about reading it someday. I was actually interviewed. All about reading and how I read so much as a working mom with three kids over on the Unmeasured podcast. I will put a link to that episode in the show notes.
If you missed it when it came out earlier this year, you could go, , check that out and just hear a little fun interview about my approach to reading. But anyway, the point is I have a huge TBR list. TBR, if you're not into reading stands for to be read. So I have a big TBR list. It's like 700 books long.
And for a long time I would just read whatever I felt like reading. And there's nothing wrong with that. It was served me well for years. I would see a recommendation on Instagram, or a friend would tell me about a book or I'd see something in a review on the New York Times, and I would go and request it from the library, and then whatever came up next, I would just read it.
I realized actually earlier this year that I wasn't actually making my way through books that I did want to read because they weren't visible to me. When I was making those choices about what to read next, they had been pushed further down on the TBR list or had forgotten about them, and so they just weren't visible to me when I was making my choice about what do I wanna read?
So this year I started experimenting with mapping out month by month, sort of pre-selecting my books and what I wanna read in the upcoming quarter. Now, it's not perfect. I still do some mood reading, which I love, but I take several things into account now as I am mapping out what I wanna read. So I know that every month I'm gonna read a book club book because I have an in-person book club.
I like to read at least one nonfiction or memoir each month. I like to then prioritize an older TBR book, so one that's been on my list for a while. Then of course, new releases, books that I'm excited about because someone just told me, oh, , this is so good. You have to read this, and then seasonally, what am I in the mood to read in the summer versus in the fall versus in the winter?
And then I do leave space for something that just strikes my fancy or catches my eye, or that I do feel in the mood to read. For example, in September, I love a good sports romance book, so I was able to pick up a football romance book that I'm reading right now, and I'll probably do a hockey one next October.
I love to grab, a couple of spooky or moody reads. So I have this loose formula that helps me pull things into that month that makes sense. Like I said, it's not perfect and there are months where I read less than I think I will, and so I have to update the plan, but it gives me a starting point.
It allows me to put things on hold at the library and not have to scroll my whole list every time I want to decide. So similarly with your big, I'm gonna call it your brain dumped list, or sometimes I'll call it your running list, right? It's just where , you dump anything that you think of that you could or might need to do.
What is your formula? How could you sort it so that you can easily find the things that fit into those categories? So what I will do if, if I am thinking about my day or my week. I wear several different hats, as I'm sure you do too. So you have your professional hat, the work tasks that you need to do.
You have your childcare tasks that go from just the daily chores and things that happen all the time, but also to like ordering shoes when your kids outgrow them. Or last month I was ordering a bunch of socks 'cause everybody had holes in their socks. Then there's the life admin stuff that we have to do either around the house.
. Calling people to service different things in our home or patching up holes or I don't know, gardening projects to the computer and phone things that we have to do. I was making an appointment for my kids the other day, and then I was calling, or actually I was going online to dispute some bill, right?
There are those things that we have to do. Then we have decisions that we need to make. We have items that we need to purchase or errands that we need to run, and then we have this big bucket of future items or things that you're just thinking about. You're not sure when or how or if you'll even do them, but you wanna put them there because maybe you will want to and you don't wanna forget.
So that is the first level of categorization that I think is really important. Think about the different responsibilities that you have and the types of tasks that fall under those responsibilities. So just to recap for me personally, and again, you'll create your own. That makes sense for you.
I have three work categories. One that's for those bigger picture projects, those important but not urgent things that I just wanna keep moving forward. I have work admin and then I have work clients. I'm serving my clients. I am following up with them. I'm doing some research for them, those types of things.
Then I have my home tasks. I have anything that's computer or phone oriented. And then I have , the home tasks that are, I need to do them in person. They are around the house, hanging the picture frame, , cleaning the vent hood over the oven, those types of things. Then decisions to make, items to purchase slash errands.
So maybe you're doing that on the computer or running out to the store, and then future items or things that you're just thinking about. So I like to think of a to-do list, like a funnel. So if you picture a funnel, you know where you might pour flour into to sift it down or decant it down into a jar that you keep in your pantry.
So it looks beautiful. If we think of our to-do list, like a funnel at the top, the widest part of the funnel. I know you can't see me, but I'm frantically waving my arms around in the air at the top. It's wide, it's all encompassing. That is where that big. Big brain dump list sits at the top. For some of you that's like pages and pages of things that you could be doing.
Then what we wanna do is sort it into something that makes it easier, again, to see things and process them. So that's where you're just sorting it into categories so that when you come into a time of your day where you're working on work items, or when you are having some time at the computer in the evening at home, after the kids go to bed, you know where to go to pull things from.
Then toward the middle of your funnel is maybe for some of my clients and I like to do this as well, a monthly selection. So based on the calendar, based on the season, what are some of the things from your bigger brain dump list that would make sense to pull in and try to do this month? So I'll give you an example.
Over the summer we sanded down and stripped and replaced some of the boards on our back deck. Then it got too hot to actually stain it and finish the project. So it's been sitting unfinished for months. Well, I know that we're gonna blink and snow is gonna be falling, or it's gonna be really cold outside, and we're gonna be heading into winter September here where I am.
Is typically a beautiful season. It's cooler. It's so much more tolerable to be outside. So when we looked at, when I say we, my husband and I looked at all of the different house projects that have been floating around or on our list to maybe do someday. We decided September. This is the month of staining our deck.
So we're gonna get that done because seasonally it makes sense. So what are the things that you could pull that would make sense for you in this upcoming month? Then if we proceed further down the funnel, I do recommend a weekly list. So instead of looking at the huge list of all of the options, I want you to get more specific, because when you think about the week, your calendar has probably solidified when you're looking, say at next week.
So that you can pull from either the full list or maybe from your monthly list of highlights that you wanna be sure you do this month and what will actually fit in the week, given your schedule, what do you wanna have done by the end of this week? What is realistic? Creating a list of things that you could then plug into any of the days, given again, your schedule and your capacity for you to get done.
And then at the very bottom of the funnel, as we move down the funnel, you have your daily list. This is where I personally would only be looking at my shorter list of weekly tasks. I've decided these are the things that this week I'd like to get finished. So when I open up my schedule for Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, I am looking at my weekly list and deciding, okay.
Based on my schedule today, based on my capacity, what are the two, three, or four things that I can realistically fit into my day? That's what I'm gonna operate from.
When you have your items categorized at that top level, it just makes choosing easier. During your work hours, you're gonna choose probably mainly from the work list of tasks. Maybe you're squeezing in a household admin item or two that you could do at the computer. If you work at a computer when you need a break from work after hours, then maybe you're choosing some of those around the house items or errands.
If it's beautiful outside this evening and the kids can be playing outside or sitting in a bouncer or something, can you take care of one of your outdoor projects? Or maybe you are choosing a, a computer based task to do in the evening after the kids go to bed if you're not too tired. And if you are, then just go to sleep.
And then for the decisions to make category that you have, you can put these items on a list to discuss with your partner or your co-parent or whoever else you need to help you be able to make those decisions. Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I definitely do not advise.
Looking at your full list, even your monthly or weekly list, regularly, I want you to write it right brain, dump it all, categorize it, and then put it away. Day to day, you should just be operating off of your daily list. Make your decision for the day and set everything else aside unless you need to open it up because you thought of something new that needs to be added.
That main list, that brain dump list or running list. I also want to acknowledge that it will be messy. I don't want you to think that you're doing it wrong if it's messy. , if things are sometimes in the wrong categories or they live in multiple categories, that's okay. That is fine.
This big list is your brain on paper and our brains are full, Mine is messy too. I just needed to say that because I think so often I talk to women who want their list to be beautiful, and if it's not color coded or in the right categories without chicken scratches or things scribbled out and arrows pointing all over the place, that that's somehow wrong, that they don't understand the concept.
And I think a messy list like that is beautiful because it means that you're actively engaging with it. You're thinking about it and playing around with what's gonna work best for you.
Now, the truth is that you get better and better at organizing the list, at sifting through it. The more that you do it, the more that you engage with it and embrace the list, the more I use my list. Analyze how I use it, the easier it is for me now to just open up the list and choose. ' cause the truth is that everything on your list matters to some degree.
So as long as you are prioritizing deadline driven items and you have those noted on your to-do list, that is actually important. How did I forget to say that earlier? Deadlines. Let's pause here for a second and talk about this. So, I do think deadlines belong on a list. Absolutely. Because again, that big list is there to serve you, to help you make decisions about what to prioritize and what to choose when you are choosing what to do next.
And so when you have the deadlines there within the different categories, whether it's a home task, a work task, a computer task, a decision to make something for the future. You'll want to scan through it for deadlines first, but what I was saying is that everything else is there because it is important to you in some way.
So outside of deadlines, just choose something. Choose based on the season like we talked about. Choose based on your energy or what you're interested or motivated to do. Or choose based on the thing that you just wanna cross off your list because you're tired of it, taking up rent in your mind or on the list, and then put it on a day where you have plenty of computer time, for example.
Or put it on a weekend day or an evening when you'd rather have a break from the computer. And so you want to be choosing tasks that you physically need to do around the house.
You wanna be able to go to that section of your list and choose something like declutter that junk drawer or write the birthday card or. Wash the windows. Those are all things on my current list in that category. Right now, I'm just pulling examples from my own life. It's about putting things into a category that will help you choose based on where you are and what you can do in that time.
It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. So think about the different roles, responsibilities that you hold. Think about the different places where you would do those tasks and then create your categories. Again, don't forget the decisions to make and the future projects or things to think about.
Category, whatever you wanna call that one. Don't forget about those, but outside of that, think about again, where you're gonna do the thing and what sort of role or responsibility that one lives under. And then be sure that you have your deadlines on there. It really is not that complicated, and you will learn as you go.
The more that you use the list to inform when you do the thing. So I wanna know if that is helpful. What other questions do you have? What categories did I maybe miss? It's totally possible. I'd love for you to send me a DM on Instagram. I'm at Love Mother Nurture. If you want to share what's been working for you,
I would love to hear from you. This is just my experience and what is working for me now and what has worked for many of my clients. But again, there's no right way. But I do think categorization is the piece that so many of you are missing to be able to turn what can be an overwhelmingly long laundry list of possibilities into something that you can use and take action from.
All right. Again, you can grab any notes, links, anything related to this podcast in the show notes over at themothernurture.com/podcast. Now if you want my eyes on your to-do list and you want help actually using it in your day-to-day life, this is absolutely something that I support my clients with.
You can learn more about coaching with me by submitting a quick application over at themothernurture.com/application. I can follow up with you with details about. One-on-one coaching and group coaching options and help you decide which or if any would be a good fit for you based on what your goals are and what you most want help with.
Alright, I will talk to you in the next episode. Until then, take care.
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