4 Steps to Get Things Done: How to Create a Good ToDo List: A Surgeon’s Todo List

5 Steps to Get Things Done: How to Create a Good ToDo List: A Surgeon’s Todo List

We are all super busy. Many of us working moms can often feel overwhelmed.

My favorite way to do a TODO list is to still write it down with the days of the week above & write down ALL the key things I want to do when I remember it. It does not need to be pretty or even neat.

Here is an example. It’s not pretty. It is a mess a bit. And there are many abbreviations. But it makes sense to the person who made it and I still love seeing those checks in the boxes.

In medical school, I had a friend who taught me this (I can’t believe no one taught me this sooner!) She would get a kick out of coloring in all her todo boxes with a black pen. We all thought she was slightly obsessed with filling in her TODO boxes: she went into psychiatry. I am not joking. She did.

5 Steps to Get Things Done

The key to not get stressed out is, in my humble and super fallen-one experience:

1. Pray daily for the Holy Spirit to show you want you need to do. I still have to recommend a the super effective and super-free stress cure of daily mass. It is a no brainer and still don’t understand why everyone does not try it. Install in here the plan of life or your times where you can really remember Who is really in charge.

2. Write down everything you can remember & the future TODO or TO WISH list (that is at the bottom of mine in the middle).

3. Get the little ones or easy ones out of the way if you need motivation to do the hard ones first. Check (or fill in) your boxes! Have the kids do this too! This is very satisfying especially if you need to motivate yourself to do that task you have been dreading all week.

4. Offer doing up the hard ones for a friend who needs prayers. I have a friend who puts a list of all her friends who need her prayers next to the sink as she hates doing dishes.

5. Celebrate a day well spent: consider doing a little something special to celebrate, like go for a run, make a visit to a tabernacle and thank God for the ability to get things done.

Pass it on. Order and a good todo list can help bring peace and happiness to your day.

Sandra Lora Cremers, MD, FACS