The Big List is something I've instagramed a couple times over the last few months, and I think I've tested it enough to share it here.
I didn't want to share the system until I was sure that it worked well for me. And it does. I'm the kind of person who will think about something I have to do constantly, because I'm worried I'll forget about it. So I always wrote stuff down. But this meant that there was a to do list in my person, to do lists in my email inbox, and to do lists on sticky notes at my desk.
The Big List is just that. A big long list. It's personal stuff and business stuff; home projects, and dinner dates. Everything goes on the big list. A spiral notebook is perfect for this, so it's hard to lose. Once everything that needs to be done is listed in manageable chunks, you can pick the things that need to be done that day, focus on them, and cross them off.
Sometimes the Big List is short enough that I can fit two week's worth of work on it. And sometimes there is so much going on that I feel like I'm running out of space on the page by Wednesday!
Depending on the week I'll use a couple different methods to keep it organized. Most of the time I do as Katelyn James suggests and put the day's to dos on a sticky note. Sometimes I put business stuff in the left column and personal stuff in the right column. Sometimes I reserve the top right corner for a mini calendar and list out events over the week. Sometimes I'll think of something that needs to be done, but I know I won't get to it this week, so I'll turn a few pages into the future and write it there. This trick is really helpful when there is so much going on that I literally can't fit everything on one page. If it doesn't fit on the page, it's too overwhelming for me to handle and I feel like I need to make a new list. So putting it on another page for another week is helpful.
When it's time for a new list, I turn to a new page, write down about 10 things that I know I need to do each week, and copy everything that hasn't been crossed off the week before.
I've been using this method since December, and it has really helped me focus on tasks one at a time instead of worrying about all those behind-the-scenes business tasks that needed to be taken care of.