Make a list of everything you accomplish, including calls, setting up Dr. appointments, driving, and see that it is overwhelming and a set-up for failure. When you make your list see if it includes ‘shoulds’ and where are the needs and wants.

One thing I do, and this may be totally crazy or “wrong,” but sometimes I will be so overwhelmed with my to-dos, I just sit there stressing and surf my phone instead of actually tackling my to-do list. I found a trick for me to get over that indecisiveness about where to start is–I’ll write a list of all the to-dos. Every single one (work, home chores, nagging calls to make, etc.) Pick a number and then count to that number on my list and tackle whatever item it lands on first. As soon as I’m done, I then count the number again on my list and figure out what’s next. As I’ve gotten older and more people pull on my time, I’ve become much better at prioritizing and figuring out what needs to be done instead of leaving it up to random chance. I often don’t have this “luxury” of leaving my to-do list up to chance. But sometimes I still find myself in those moods where I just can’t even spend the brain power prioritizing or making a decision. It’s more a trick I use to get me started working.

@Katherine – interesting question. I think the usefulness of a to-do list comes mostly from the prioritization process, and from a feeling of completion that then allows you to declare victory for today and move on to the next day with no sense of being “behind.” The problem with a 50-item to-do list is that you won’t do all 50 items. So which 8 did you do? Were they the right 8? Making a very short list forces you to answer the question of what *has* to get done today. Making short lists also helps to make one feel less busy while getting more done, because when you’ve done what you assigned yourself for the day, you’re done! You can actually stop. Because you know you’ve done a lot of great stuff, and you’ll do more great stuff tomorrow.

I agree about the difficulty of correctly estimating the time needed for tasks and meetings. Like many of us, I’m guilty of routinely underestimating time (like scheduling back to back meetings without transition or walking time between them). Laura – would love to hear more from you on this, including what your experience and research tells you about the long-term impact of never quite finishing our to-do lists. Does it diminish their usefulness if we don’t really believe we’ll complete them?

@Leanne- based on all these comments, it feels like I should write something about figuring out how long things take. That seems to be an issue for many people!