How To-Do Lists Help Your Brain

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Many people now criticize to-do lists, but the very act of planning gives us certain psychological benefits. We remember information better and can control our time. At the same time, it is not so important whether we are doing everything that we have planned.

Written is easier to remember

Making a to-do list is akin to taking notes while reading a book or sitting in a lecture. While keeping a record, you process the information, mentally summarize it, and this, as many studies confirm, helps to better remember what you have passed Pam A. Mueller, Daniel M. Oppenheimer. … …

When making a to-do list, you think over your tasks, distribute them according to the degree of importance. Your brain determines what to remember first. The more you mentally work with some information, the better you perceive it. That is why sometimes, even without looking at the list we have made, we remember the planned things.

Planning turns abstract goals into concrete goals

For most people, the challenge is not staying busy throughout the day, but taking on those big projects that give them job satisfaction. Typically, such a project is some kind of abstract goal that we want to achieve within a few weeks or months. But the problem is that such tasks are difficult to master without breaking them down into specific actions that can be performed day after day, week after week, month after month.

A to-do list will help you clearly identify all the necessary actions and get ready for work.

To-do lists help filter out unnecessary things

Many reasons can prevent you from fulfilling everything planned for the day. The incessant stream of e-mail and other messages constantly threatens to take up all the time, not to mention various appointments and meetings, or just unforeseen events. But if you make a to-do list, you somehow have to add them to your calendar, set aside time for them.

Keeping a calendar in itself is very useful for dealing with various unforeseen situations. Try to plan several weeks in advance when there is still space on your calendar. However, you may notice that all of your time has already been scheduled. Most likely, this is a sign that you are busy with other, less important tasks, because of which the main work is relegated to the background. It might be time to redesign your workday.

Output

Even if your to-do list is not perfectly organized, and some tasks you have not been able to complete, nevertheless, you have gone beyond the usual. You discovered things that were wasting your time, planned specific steps to achieve your goal. And this is much more important than just crossing an item off the list.