1-3-5

 You ever make a to do list and feel crushed under the weight of it? Or think of all you need to do and have no idea where to start?

I'm a little obsessed with lists (to the point that Google Keep is my hero but not quite to the extent that I can maintain a bullet journal).

Making a list is the easy, fun part, though. The tough part is figuring out how to actually get some of it done.

I have had a couple larger projects on my plate at work recently that have been on my list for months.  They don't have deadlines; on my team we call them downtime projects. Our downtime list is sort of like a wishlist of things we really want done and would help us out immensely, but they are just not urgent enough to be a priority. As soon as we have any open time to tackle them, we are expected to. Thanks to some preparation I did for the year back in December, I have been well caught up on all my daily, more urgent or regualr projects and deadlines all year. I have had the time to get these projects done but haven't been able to prioritize them or felt motivated to do them. I just rewrite these tasks on each of my weekly to do lists and sigh.

Then I learned about the 1-3-5 list.

I was previously organizing my work to do lists somewhat arbitrarily, trying to put the more urgent things at the top. This left me overwhelmed each morning as I would sit down at my desk and look at a page-long list of things to get done. Not to mention that I would never complete a list, since tasks were added more quickly than crossed off. It felt never-ending and impossible. At the very bottom of my list were those big, un-fun tasks I had been long avoiding. I had little hope I would ever get them done.

To make a 1-3-5 list, you think of your tasks in degrees of how difficult they will be to complete, how much time they will take and how much drive you have to do them. Tasks are separated into three categories: easy, medium and hard.

For example, my "hard" list is full of tasks that are complex, will take a long time or that I simply am not excited to do. My "easy" list has things that will probably take me less than an hour and very little effort. Before I leave the office each day, I pick one hard task to tackle the next morning. I also pick three medium tasks and five easies.

Then in the morning, I work on my hard project until around lunchtime. I may not finish it, but I give it a good go. I ignore the rest of the items on my list until the afternoon. At that time, I either victoriously cross my hard task off my list or I put it away for the day. When I return in the afternoon, I take care of my medium then easy tasks. If I still have time left at the end of the day, I look back at my master list and do some more easy-medium stuff, depending on how I'm feeling. Some days, if the morning went well, I even feel like returning to my hard task to make some more progress on it. Then before I leave I choose my tasks for the next day, rinse and repeat.

Now, my daily 1-3-5 list feels much more manageable. I am able to cross off most, sometimes all, of the items each day. 1-3-5 helps me set myself up to start the day with a big win and coast to five o'clock from there. My mornings are more focused and productive, and my afternoons go by more quickly. I have made significant progress on those projects I never thought I'd get to. Actually, once I actually dive in, I have found that my "hard" projects are really not as difficult as my procrastination had inflated them to be, and I have finished many of them in just one day. I feel a renewed sense of motivation and optimism about my daily tasks and have been much more productive.

So far I've only done this at work, but I think it would have the same effect on my personal responsibilities and goals. Here’s how to get started.

1. Create a long ass list of everything you need to do. Like, all the things.
     
2. Rewrite your list, this time listing the most difficult or dreaded tasks first, then the tasks that will be kind of hard and take some time and last the breezy things that will take you almost no time or effort.
3. Does anything seem off balance to you? You should have a smaller amount of difficult tasks and increasing amounts of medium and easy tasks.
   
   See if you can break up any of your more difficult stuff in to smaller steps. Be specific and list each "subtask" on your easy or medium list instead.
   
   For example, instead of "Clean house" on your hard list, you could add "declutter master closet" as a medium task and "vacuum upstairs carpet", "clean shower", "dust livingroom furniture", etc. On your easy list.
4. Then make a list for your day, weekend or week, by choosing from your master list one hard task to devote effort to. You'll try to make a good amount of progress on this task first before moving on to any other tasks. Also choose three medium and five easy tasks to complete after you've done some good work on that first one.
5. Bonus: now each time you complete a task, you get to cross it off twice. Once off your daily/weekly list and once off your master list. Go you!  

You don't have to beautify your lists, but I like to, and it adds even more fun and motivation. Here are some of my 1-3-5 master and daily lists. I make a new master list whenever one is really crossed off, I want a fresh look at things, I have a lot to add and have run out of room, or whenever I feel like it. This happens about once a week. I like making a daily list at work, but for a personal 1-3-5 list would probably only make one master task list every couple of weeks to a month and then a 1-3-5 list from those tasks each weekend.