Why I stopped using a to-do list and what you can do instead

I loved to-do lists. I mean really LOVED to-do lists .

I have gone through so many notebooks since university that I can fill a whole section of my bookcase with it (and I am also slightly sentimental so I’ve kept most of them )

And besides my notebooks, I also had loads of post-its with additional to-dos and a huge mental to-do list.

Sometimes the number of tasks would be so overwhelming that I would re-write the to-do list on a new page and add them in order of importance.

Or I would highlight some of them. Like I did in the picture below (this is written in Dutch so you might not be able to read 😉.

When I started my business I continued working this way. I had for as long as I could remember so why not?

And for a long time, I struggled with being overwhelmed, waking up daily feeling stressed because I had so much to do that I had no clue where to start or what to focus on.

My to-do list was ever-growing and it felt like I was trying to dig myself out of a hole that just kept getting bigger.

And it filled my mind with self-doubt.

I would tell myself “maybe I’m not cut out to run my own business” which was only increasing my self-doubt.

I’d wonder how I got to this place until I realised that instead of working harder (aka weekends and evenings) to get through the to-do list, I had to take a step back and evaluate.

• I had to get clear on where I really wanted to go with my business
• Create a plan on how to get there + let the plan determine my priorities
• I had to set boundaries on the time I worked
• Be realistic about how much I could do in the time that I had

That was my turning point. The moment when I took control back.

Why to-do lists don’t work for brand and website designers

Weather you need to focus on project management for creative projects or tasks to work on the business; here’s why I believe to-do lists don’t work.

1. To-do lists are based on everything you think you should be doing instead of the tasks that are a priority in your business right now. So you always seem to be adding more tasks than you tick off.
2. To-do lists don’t consider the capacity that you have to complete these tasks (you never seem to have enough time to get through them, right?)
3. To-do lists are overwhelming – this is basically caused by a combination of the above 2 reasons. But sometimes just looking at everything you need to do can lead to avoidance. Which then leads to being frustrated with yourself because you did not do anything. And the cycle continues.
4. To-do lists often have items on them that are not even to-do’s but just ideas of things you want to look at, at some point.
5. To-do lists often have tasks that are way too general to even action. Like update website client x. What does this even mean? You still don’t know what it is that you need to do right now. Do you want to upload new imagery? Do you want to update a contact form? Re-write the sales page copy?
6. And, as this Harvard Business Review article mentions, long to-do lists invite you to cross things off that can be done quickly. Does this mean you’re getting through your to-do list? Yes. Does it mean you’re doing the strategic work necessary to reach your business goals? No

I even came across this suggestion: It might work well for you to have a “project” list, a “follow-up” list, and a “don’t forget” list. How does managing 3 to-do lists make it easier to set priorities? That alone sounds overwhelming.

Let’s look at what you can do that eliminates all 6 reasons I mentioned above about why to-do lists don’t work for brand and website designers.

What to do instead of creating a to-do list?

Me saying ‘don’t use to-do lists’ might stir up some feelings if that is something you have always done. But the harsh truth is that you don’t get points for being busy, you need to be productive and see progress. It’s about knowing which tasks are actually going to help you move forward and get YOU closer to YOUR goals and structuring your week in a way that you can make sure these tasks get done.

I like the way writer, Gary Keller from The One Thing says it:

“The people who achieve extraordinary results don’t achieve them by working more hours … They achieve them by getting more done in the hours they work.”

One of the ways he teaches you to make sure the things that need to get done actually get done is by saying “Until my ONE Thing is done — everything else is a distraction.”

When we relate this to running your own business, he means that every day you first need to focus on what needs to happen for you aka the tasks that will move the needle in your business. And only when this is done, do you focus on other things aka client work. But this is a huge mindset shift that needs to happen.

What about all your client works? Shouldn’t you just manage design projects? Clients come first, right?

This is exactly how I used to work. Client work came first and then when there was time left I would work on things for my business. But what happens then is that you let client work stretch across your whole week because you make working on your business optional instead of a priority.

The best way that I know to change this is by structuring your week with theme days, time blocks and task batching.

You might be thinking how is time blocking a to-do list alternative?

When you’re working with time blocks:

• You’re having specific blocks of time where you need to work on your business. I call these business focus blocks and they should be planned at the beginning of your day, but it does not have to be the first thing (I actually like having a morning wind-up process but it should be as early as possible)
• You will need to add time estimates to each task (and this is a key step) so that you can plan according to your capacity.

How To fill up your time blocks with tasks

To fill them up you will need to break them down into actionable steps. This will not only allow you to estimate your time more accurate but you will also know exactly what you need to do when your business focus block starts.

Let’s say you’re a brand designers and you want to start offering brand clarity calls. Then, to eliminate reason 5 I mentioned above, you need to brainstorm all the steps you need to take to start offering this service and add time estimates. You think of tasks like;

• Setting up a Dubsado Scheduler so that clients can book the call,
• Create a page on your website and embed the scheduler,
• Create a questionnaire in Dubsado to get essential info from the client before the call,
• Create a framework or template for the action plan you’re going to send after the call,
• Write the service page in a Google Doc,
• Determine the pricing and so on.

The result of this approach is that you will no longer overcommit what you can get done in a block of time or in a week because you know exactly how long a task will take if you track your time (You of course need to take some time each week to plan the tasks you want to complete into your business focus time blocks). And you will actually feel like you have finished everything you needed for your business when you have finished the tasks that were planned for your business focus blocks.

This eliminates reasons 2 & 3, and to me, just this alone makes it worth working this way.

Another benefit of working this way is that you don’t have to look at your whole to-do list and determine what to work on next, it’s already planned. You ‘just’ need to execute.

I know that executing, especially when you don’t have someone other than yourself to keep you accountable, isn’t always as easy as I might make it sound here. So don’t beat yourself up if this is the part where you get stuck. If you set up this process at least you know there is always something for you to fall back on when you’re ready again to start implementing.

And anything that is not on your list for this week’s business focus blocks, is something you do not have to think about right now. There will be so much less stress because you know exactly what to focus on, what you need to do on a certain day and know that you are working on tasks that are moving the needle for your business.

And would you not also be able to serve your clients better because of this?

To get the best results with this way of working and to know which tasks you should focus on in your business focus blocks you will also need:

• Financial goals for the year
• To have a business plan on how to reach your financial target with sub-goals per quarter. You can use my phased approach for this
• To break down your quarterly targets into your priorities for each month. As this will feed into what you need to work on in your business focus blocks and will eliminate reasons 1 and 6.
• Implement a weekly planning session to review what you’ve been able to accomplish in the past week and make adjustments to your schedule for the coming week. Again, this will be based on your capacity.
• Implement a monthly review process to ask yourself monthly review questions, track your metrics, update your financials, review your goals and plan ahead for the next month
• Have a process in place of what you’ll do when ideas pop up that are not tasks or not priorities & where you will store them (this eliminates reason 4)
• A system like ClickUp to manage these processes. Like being able to drag and drop tasks into your time blocks

Related article: 5 most important processes every design studio needs

Does this also work with creative project management?

In this article, I put a large focus on managing projects related to your business growth, not client work. But the theory I mention in this article, can also be applied to manage design projects. When you think about the branding design process or the website design process, there are so many steps that need to be executed to create an amazing website or brand for your client.

So instead of looking at a time block to focus on business related tasks, you can also create time blocks that are dedicated to design project management. You will need to fill these time blocks up with tasks and need to make sure they:

• Are not overwhelming, so you’ll need to break down your branding design process into actionable steps. So instead of create moodboard, you’ll have tasks that break down the steps of creating the moodboard, reviewing it a day later, sending it to the client and incorporating the clients feedback.
• Fit within the capacity that you have, so you’ll need to add time estimates to each stage of the design project to make sure you’re able to keep to the timeline and that you’re not spending more hours on a project then you’re getting paid for
• Are a priority. It’s tempting to work on the design project that is the most fun, but it’s important to keep projects to timeline so you’ll need to make sure you’re working on priority tasks first.

I hope this helps you to know that if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the things that you have on your to-do list, that there is another way of working that might work for you.

And I am not saying this will work for everyone.

But the clients that I have walked through this process have all felt a huge relief. These have been clients that are creatives, that have ADD or that have always struggled with either implementing a structure or having a structure in general because of the fear it might hamper creativity.

What would it mean for you to get rid of that overwhelming to-do list? How would it make you feel if you could sit down each day and know exactly what you’re supposed to do?