How to Boost Writing Productivity with Calendars or To-Do Lists

I’m an avid list-maker.

I make lists for everything, including writing-related projects I want to complete. I find them motivating as I enjoy scratching through finished projects, and particularly like it when there are enough scratched off that I have to make a new list.

But recently I came across some information that made me question my approach. It seems that for many, calendars are more effective than to-do lists, and lead to increased productivity. Could they be the better option for writers, too?

Three Reasons Why Lists May Reduce Productivity

While lists can be helpful when it comes to keeping you on task and getting your projects completed, they can be problematic, too, depending on how you use them.

1. The List Gets Too Long

The biggest issue occurs when you get too many items on the list. Once the list grows beyond your ability to manage, it becomes a source of stress and frustration.

If you have a list, for example, that includes 10 or more items and you’re not sure where to start, that list is actually going to make you less rather than more productive.

Research at iDoneThis, a management tool company, discovered that 41 percent of to-do list items were never completed. They also found that those that were finished were typically completed quickly—within a day or sooner—and only 15 percent of “done” items actually started out on the list in the first place.

The investigators concluded that people weren’t great at completing their to-do list tasks. “The popular to-do list, then,” wrote Janet Choi at the company, “appears to be rather ineffective, and it’s this paradox that may explain the spiky love/hate relationship that people have with to-do lists.”

It isn’t that people are lazy, or that they don’t to get their tasks done. Instead, they sabotage themselves when they place too many items on the list, causing an overload in the brain and a sort of paralysis that keeps them from taking meaningful action.

2. Many Writers Don’t Know How to Write an Effective To-Do List

The other big issue seems to be that most of us don’t really known how to write an effective to-do list. We just sort of slap everything on there, without any notes about how or when we’re going to act.

The list becomes a hodgepodge of things that need to be done without any priority assigned to the tasks, or any separation between the urgent and not-so-urgent items. This type of list serves only as a reminder of the tasks we need to “think about,” rather than an actual plan for taking action.

Let’s say you want to update your writer website. You have “update website” on your to-do list. When you review the list, you see that item and think, “Yes, I need to do that,” but then you’re stuck, as you don’t know what step to take next. Should you research other sites to decide how you want yours to look? Check with some designers to help you? Look for a new theme?

Confronted with all these possibilities, you’re likely to assume you’ll get to it later, and leave the item undone.

3. Poor To-Do Lists Have No Deadlines Attached

Finally, poorly written to-do lists lack any deadlines. They’re simply a list of items with no indication of when those items need to be completed. This creates a false sense of security, as each time you review the list, you assume you have plenty of time to complete the projects, making it far too easy to put off any action.

Research also shows that the more time you give yourself to complete a task, the longer it will take you to get it done—and the quality may suffer, too. In a 2002 study, psychologists discovered that students who had more time to complete their papers actually performed worse than those who had to meet class deadlines, or even self-imposed deadlines.

Considering these three pitfalls, we can see that to-do lists may not be the best option for increasing productivity. If you’re looking for something that will actually help you get your tasks done, you may need to turn to a calendar, instead.

Why Calendars May Help Writers Become More Productive

I’ve never been a fan of calendars myself. I find them a bit too time-consuming to manage and I’d rather just work with a notepad and pencil rather than an app on my phone or computer. But I have taken to writing my own “90-day plans” recently, and I’ve noticed they’re helping me to get more of my projects done. Could it be that calendars are the superior project-management method?

Srinivas Rao, author of An Audience of One: Reclaiming Creativity for Its Own Sake, has become a fan of calendars. After interviewing hundreds of people, he discovered the most prolific, productive and successful ones relied on calendars.

“It’s a lesson I’ve learned over and over again in my own work,” he writes. “The likelihood of me getting anything done goes up significantly when I put something on the calendar.”

There are several benefits to using one.

1. Calendars Give You Time

First, when you put a task on a calendar, you have to choose a time and date for it.

Just that simple requirement means you will have a designated time period to focus on that project—something a to-do list doesn’t offer you.

2. Calendars Help You Avoid Overwhelm

Second, a calendar forces you to work with the time you have, so you’re less likely to expand your tasks beyond what you can manage.

If you have no time on your calendar to do your website update, for example, you have to choose to let something else go in order to fit it in. With a list, you can simply add it on, but with a calendar, you have to take a more realistic view of the time you have available.

3. Calendars Help You Prioritize

Third, a calendar helps you prioritize those urgent or important items, as most likely, you’re going to schedule them earlier in the month than you might less urgent items.

Whereas a list simply lumps urgent and non-urgent items together, a calendar helps you tackle the urgent items right away.

4. Calendars Encourage You to Plan Ahead

Whereas a list simply reminds you of items to be completed, a calendar can help you improve your planning. You’re unlikely, for example, to add “update website” to your calendar for 1:00 p.m. on a Saturday. Instead, if you see that you have an hour that day, you’ll probably think about what you need to do to get started.

So perhaps you’ll schedule “research web designers” for 1:00 p.m. Saturday, or “look for a new theme.” That gives you a more definite task you can get started on right away when the time comes.

5. Calendars Make You Less Likely to Wimp Out

It’s fairly easy to wimp out when it comes to a to-do list. If you don’t feel like working on your website, you’ll choose something easier on the list (like writing a blog) to do instead, and still feel like you accomplished something important.

With a calendar, however, you have a designated time to work on your website, so it’s harder to shirk that responsibility. You may not really feel like doing it, but you scheduled it, so you’ll be more likely to follow through.

Finally, calendars can help you deal with the inevitable interruptions and crises that life throws at us. As long as you schedule in some time each day to deal with unexpected problems and issues, you’ll be able to keep up with the projects you’ve planned.

Which One for You—List or Calendar?

Which method will work best for you? It’s a personal decision, and it depends on how you use each tool. If you love lists, like I do, you can make some improvements to how you write them to increase your productivity. Here are some recommendations:

1. Prioritize: Split the list in two, and each day, write only three priority items at the top. These are the tasks you most need to complete that day. Do the same for your weekly, monthly, and yearly lists. Then put the remaining list items on the bottom. (Find more information on this and other productivity tools in Overwhelmed Writer Rescue.)
2. Break it Down: When making your list, spend some time to think about how you’re going to approach each project. Break down more complex list items into specific tasks to be completed. Under “update website,” for example, list tasks such as research designers, find a new theme, decide on new colors and font, etc.
3. Use Times, Dates, and Deadlines: Add a deadline to each item on your list. That may be enough for you to make sure you work steadily on it, but if not, borrow from the calendar idea and add the days and times you will work on each task.

If to-do lists are stressing you out, you may find you’re happier and more productive using a calendar. Some people perform best when combining the two approaches—creating a list of projects to complete, and then transferring some of the projects to a calendar when it comes time to start working on them.

The important thing is to find a method that motivates you to regularly take action on the projects you want to complete. Ask yourself if your current method helps you do that. If not, it may be time to make some changes.

Which do you find more helpful—to-do lists or calendars?

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Sources
Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K. (2002). Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommitment. Psychological Science, 13(3), 219-224. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00441

Choi, J. (2012, December 11). How to Master the Art of To-Do Lists by Understanding Why They Fail. Retrieved from http://blog.idonethis.com/how-to-master-the-art-of-to-do-lists/

Rao, S. (2017, December 23). Why Calendars are More Effective Than To Do Lists – Srinivas Rao – Pocket. Retrieved from https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-calendars-are-more-effective-than-to-do-lists