I have always loved a to-do list. Every Sunday night, I would write out all of the weekly household chores, errands, and appointments. I would list my planned exercises for the week and work project due dates. And then clip that list into my daily planner next to a list of meals I could make for dinner based on the ingredients we already had. Nothing was ever actually written *in* the calendar. In fact, I’ve got some practically new calendars from years past that were opened every day and carried all over the country and yet have no pen marks in them anywhere except my name inside the front cover. 

I especially loved a list because I got a sense of accomplishment and (dare I say it) JOY from crossing off items after they were completed. I have cleaned bathrooms every Tuesday for most of my adult life but it still felt so good to put “clean bathroom” on my ever lengthening weekly to-do list just for the satisfaction of crossing it off on Tuesday morning. 

As my enjoyment in crossing off to-do list items increased, so did what I chose to list. These lists got long, friends. Certain items, like appointments or sports practices, which had a specific date and time, got lost. I also started to overwhelm myself with the sheer number of tasks to accomplish– which led to front loading my weeks, crossing off as much as possible on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Most weeks this meant mismanaging my time. I was working so hard at the beginning of the week to feel that sense of accomplishment that came from crossing off an item, I was dangerously close to burning out by Wednesday afternoon. Every week it meant equating smaller tasks with the bigger items that could have been scheduled on a calendar, blocking out specific times of the day for work or personal business. 

A couple of years ago, after opening my brand new day planner, I decided to try a radical new system — *scheduling* my weeks instead of listing them. Friends and coworkers had been suggesting I was “doing it wrong” for a while now. What did I have to lose? Appointments with dates and times were now listed on their date and time. Meals were assigned a specific date, as were household chores. This new way of planning my week allowed me to timeblock for work projects and manage my time differently. Don’t get me wrong, I did not miss many deadlines with the old to-do list system, but this allowed me to see when I could work on a project later in the week and how much time I would need to complete it before the weekend. 

While I still make to-do lists for parties or one-off events, I am enjoying scheduling over listing. I still check completed tasks off from the calendar (and there is no mistaking how used this daily planner is now! Marks are everywhere.). This year, I even went so far as to buy erasable colored pens. There is no color-coded system, but my planner looks like a rainbow and as it turns out, that’s its own source of joy. Baby steps.

What about you, are you a lister, scheduler, or somewhere in between?