Make Your Task List into a Schedule with Toodledo and Notability on the iPad

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I turn my task list from Toodledo into a schedule in Notability!

I read an interesting article recently in thesimpledollar.com where the author had reviewed and ranked 5 popular productivity hacks. I'll include a link to the article in the comments section (https://www.thesimpledollar.com/5-time-saving-productivity-hacks-reviewed/).  The hack that ranked highest out of the 5, shaving 72 very specific minutes off the daily clock, was getting rid of to do lists and replacing them with a schedule. I got a little miffed when I first read this since I live and die by my task list. But then I realized that I already employ this hack -- turning my to do list into a schedule -- pretty much every day. 

What that means in practice is, instead of having a list of things that need to be accomplished even if they are prioritized, you estimate how long it will take to complete each task, put them an actual hourly schedule, and then race to complete them in the allotted time. I mentioned this process quickly already in my Toodledo video, but decide pull it out in light of the usefulness of this productivity hack. 

My ADHD brain needs that little squirt of adrenaline that this process provides to help me stay focused and keep my productivity high throughout the day. I definitely get more accomplished when I do this and suffer less from diddling around or daydreaming. 

You can do this with any electronic to do list or even a photo of your handwritten list. For work, I still use a low tech spreadsheet.  At home, I use the Toodledo app. I add items to Toodledo constantly - remember to call for kids doctor's appointments, send out carpool schedule, pick up contacts, etc. In addition, I have a bunch of recurring appointments, so I always wake up to a full list of tasks on any given day.  

Here is the process at its most basic -- I do this on my iPad. It could work on a phone, but the small screen size is not ideal. I open the Toodledo app and screen shot my task list. Now I open the Notability app and create a new document. I usually name it Date, Day, Tasks.  I delete these when I'm finished, so the name doesn't matter that much. 

Now I pull in the screen shot of my task list - add media then photo. Then I crop it down to what I want to see Edit, Cropping Tool, Done.  It goes on the left side of the page. Now I add any additional tasks that I need to do that day: showering or cleaning up the kitchen generally is too mundane to make it into Toodledo, but since it takes up time, I hand write it in on Notability.  Now I go through this list and assign approximate duration for each activity in minutes or hours. Once I've done that, I pull in a blank schedule. You can easily make one of these by going into your calendar (I use the Google Calendar app), switching the view to daily, turning off all of your calendars so that you have no appointments, and creating a screen shot. Do this once and store it in your photos and you won't have to do it each time. The date is not important.  

I pull this blank hourly schedule in and crop it just to show the timeframe I have. For example, on Tuesdays, I have from 7:30am until 2:30pm to get through my list.  So, I crop it like this. Now I determine what order I want to accomplish my tasks. And number them. How you choose to do this is purely a matter of preference and personal style.  Most of the time I do shortest duration tasks to longest duration task, but some people like to get the big stuff done first, and some like to intersperse smaller tasks between the larger ones. It's entirely up to you. 

Generally, I count up all of the 5 minute tasks and assign them the first block of time. Then I do all of the 10 minute ones. Then I schedule in the longer tasks with blocks of time. Frequently I'll find that I can't do everything in one day, so I have choices to make. I go back into Toodledo and push back the dates on some of the items that didn't make the cut.  Once I have a schedule, I take a deep breath and get to work, racing against the clock, and scratching things out once I've completed them. My husband knows that I don't have time to answer the phone or any emails on the days that I'm Getting Things Done.  I tend not to give into distractions because that will bump my schedule around.  Just in case that does happen, you can move things relatively easily. Let's say balancing my checkbook took 1 hour rather than 30 minutes. I can use the  scissor tool to move everything back by a half an hour.  So, it's less a matter of difficulty and more a matter of wanting to finish everything I expected to!

Toodledo hack

If you happen to use Toodledo like me, you can assign a duration to each tasks within the app. Then you can sort the list by task duration. I've started using this since it makes it easier to group my 5 minute tasks.  I still pull the list into Notability since I always want leeway to do tasks in a different order than Notability proscribes, I like the satisfaction of manually scratching off completed tasks, and most of all, I want to see my tasks on a schedule because it keeps me focused and productive. 

Let me know what you think!  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!