Turning your to-do list into a to-done list
Whenever we think about to-do lists or task lists we're always thinking about ways to tic those checkboxes and feel like making progress. Here's a question though...have you ever put items on your list you've already finished just to check them off? Is this wrong?I use Todoist to track my task list and one of the nice features is the ability to mark tasks with a tag to tie it to a specific project. I've taken to using the tagging option to go back and identify work I did during the course of the day to get a better understanding of where I'm putting my timeEach project in Todoist can have a color assigned to the project and any tasks assigned to the project also receive that color marker. By doing this when I look at the productivity chart it shows the number of tasks I've completed each day and color bars representing the number of tasks completed for each project.For example, if I'm doing chores around the house I may also do a little car maintenance and decluttering. If my task is "house chores" for Saturday, it doesn't give me a perspective as to if I'm keeping up with the auto maintenance or is the decluttering getting away from me. There's a side benefit from capturing things after they're done.A sense of accomplishment often eludes us when we're hard at work. Taking time to look back and appreciate the amount of productivity we've had rather than what we think we should have. Taking time to account for work we've done even if we haven't captured it in advance is just as valuable to our productivity as making that list first.Do you put done items on your to-do list? Does it help or hurt?