Maximise Your Productivity with a Minimalist Evernote To-Do List

Newsletter housekeeping: The Evernote updates keep rolling in! Version 10.58.8 is out for PC and Macs. This is a bug fix update and you can grab it now from the download page or wait a few days for the in-app update. The latest Triple ‘T’ podcast is a cracker! Amazing chat with Certified Evernote Expert Julie Bestry. Don’t miss it!

Everyone loves(!) a to do list and mine has evolved over the years from being a boring old checklist in Evernote to a complicated thing in Todoist to a reasonably tidy bunch of Evernote tasks.

But, how many tasks do you have on your to-do list for today?

My strategy with Evernote has always been to keep things simple and as minimal as possible. Every time you add another workflow, create a new notebook, tag or task you complicate things and over the years this can end up as a chaotic mess.

Every task is now in Evernote and they all have a due date. All of them.

If it needs to be on a task list then it needs to be done.

If it doesn’t need to be done by a set date then it can go in a ‘Sometime Never’ note.

Keep today’s to-do list manageable

Never put so much on your list for today that you can’t possibly manage it. This leads to self-induced stress, pressure and hassle.

What you have on your today list MUST be manageable in the hours you have to work.

I tend to have 6 - 10 items on my list each day. Most of these things are quick wins like emailing a report to someone or cleaning the bathroom. Other tasks may take longer but what I always do is make sure there’s not too much for my day.

I like to be able to finish all my tasks and get the feeling that I’ve achieved something. If I had 30 things on today’s list then I’d be putting undue pressure on myself to do all of them and be disappointed when I only manage 10.

This is how my task list looks today:

Please ignore the overdue items… I will do then, honestly!

Daily preparation

The one thing I find essential to keeping my task list short and sweet is preparing my day first thing in the morning. Some folks do their prep at the end of the day, it’s up to you. I do mine at about 8am just before I start work.

I go through all the things I’m working on right now and work out what I can realistically do today.

If I end up finishing everything by 3pm then I either dig into another days list or I take the time off.

For me the preparation is really important as it helps me understand exactly what I have to do. I’m not wasting time trying to think about what to do next, I just do it.

If I don't complete everything then stuff gets moved to tomorrow or another day.

I also move tasks around my list. I may move some things to next week or the following month if they’re not that important.

Everything is fluid, not too fixed so if urgent things happen during the day I’m not mentally thinking I’m overrun with work.

Viewing today’s tasks in Evernote

I tend to work from the Home Page Dashboard and have a medium size widget setup. I can easily see all today’s tasks, get to the notes and move things around.

If I’m in the middle of working on a note then I open up the Task Sidebar and view things by ‘Due Date’. I’ve remapped the keyboard shortcut to CTRL + NUMPAD + 0 as its a little easier than the default shortcut.

How do you mange today’s to-do list? A few things or is everything on it?

Have a great weekend

All the best

Jon