15 - Why is staying on top of your to-do's so hard?
episode 15 - Why is staying on top of your to-do's so hard?
I used to live a nice, peaceful life where I made a cute little to-do list in the morning, and then I spent the day checking things off, and then once it was empty, I felt so good! Maybe I never had that - but it sounds great, doesn't it?? Staying on top of what you need to do and when is so hard as a grad student, but this episode has some comfort that you're not alone, and importantly, three things you could try today to help with that overwhelming feeling of a list that keeps getting longer, no matter what you do...
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Welcome to Grad School is Hard, But... A Thrive PhD podcast. I'm Dr. Katy Peplin and this is a show for everyone who's doing the hard work of being a human and a scholar. We'll talk about why some of these things are so hard, and how that difficulty is showing up for you. Each episode has practical strategies to experiment with -- just because it's hard now doesn't mean it always has to be.
You can get my free working more intentionally toolkit@thrive-phd.com or the link in the show notes. If you want to go even deeper with the work.
If there's one thing I know for certain it's that if you're listening to this right now, There are things on your to-do list. If I'm lucky listening to the new episode is right at the top, but I'm sure that there are important things, urgent things, things from two weeks ago. Things your boss put on there that all need to get done soon.
Now. Before. So why is it so hard to manage it, to do list? Let's talk about that. On today's episode.
One of the reasons that I think it's so hard to manage it, to do list both as a person, as a scholar and both of those things as a grad student, is that you truly can never get to the bottom. Just like we've talked about in other episodes, there's so much scope creep in academia. So even if you did theoretically finish everything that you wanted to do for the day,
You could work ahead. You could get started on something else. You could pick up a project from the not right now file. There's so many things to do that it's really hard to be like, yes, I'm caught up or yes, I have everything checked off. It also can be really hard as a grad student because other people can add to that, to do list.
Your students can add to it. The professor that you TA for can add to it. Your boss can add to it. Maybe your spouse or your colleagues or your co-authors. It's not as if we all go to our own special scholar room, we work on the tasks ahead of us, and then we leave that room.
We're working in busy, collaborative, interactive environments. And that means that sometimes other people put stuff on your list. Even if it's not the most important thing to you. I know that one thing that would drive me bananas as a grad student would be that I would have the whole day planned out.
I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I would sit down at my desk and suddenly there was an email from the professor I was TA for, or my advisor or a conference committee or someone, and all of the sudden. My to-do list completely changed everything that I thought I needed to get done that day. Everything that I needed to get done that day had to be put on hold.
You just don't have full control over your to-do list and that's just with your work stuff. Because you probably also have a few lists going. I know that if I look at my task manager right now, I have work tasks. I have home tasks. I have family tasks. I have things for my hobbies. I have things for my projects. It's wild. How many different things I have going.
And unfortunately, I don't also have different versions of myself with their own 24 hours and their own set of spoons and energy. To do all of those things. I wish that there was one version of me for every list that needed to get done. You probably have a few lists going, but you've only got one body, one brain.
1 24 hours to get things done.
Let's dig into some of those questions to consider, to see how you feel about your to-do lists. What's working, what isn't, before we get into those experiments, that might just help you get a little bit of a handle on what's going on. Let's get into it.
What feels good for you in terms of to-do lists, do you love checking everything off and being done at the end of the day?
Do you love estimating correctly and having a certain amount of time and energy that you can allocate, but what are the behaviors that really make that brain chemical sparkle explosion go off in your head? When it comes to getting things done?
A question to consider. Where do you keep your to-do list? Is it an app that syncs between all of your devices and you can access at any time. Is it an app plus also wherever you manage to jot things down when you're in the kitchen, whatever scrap of napkin or grocery list that is.
Is it in a bunch of different places. Do you have shared lists with other people? But where do you keep your to-do list?
And then last but not least. How do you manage tasks that are in the not right now category? You know, those things that, you know, you need to get done, but not in the next hour or maybe not in the next day.
In other words, how do you capture all of those to do's that you'll need to get to eventually, but you're definitely not going to be doing right now.
Okay. Let's dig into these experiments because if there are anything like me, you're constantly looking for new ways, new programs, new systems to help manage just the onslaught of things that you need to do.
The first experiment to try is to, if you never have experiment with the to-do list manager. So I'm not necessarily going to go on the record as to which to do list manager, I think is best. A dirty little secret that I have is I think that most of them share about 80% of the same functions. And the other 20 are things that you probably won't use anyway.
But. If you've never had a, to do list manager that allows you to separate tasks, set tasks to repeat. Or filter tasks out so that you can only see some at a certain time. Then you might be ready for a level up. One of the things that I love about task managers is being able to automate a certain number of the tasks, the things that I do regularly, but I can also forget to do like.
Sending a newsletter or cleaning out my downloads folder or the conference paper that needs to be submitted in three months. But I don't need to think about for three months minus one week. That to-do list manager can help you store some of those. To do's that you don't have the space or the energy to deal with right now and show them to you at a time and space where you might.
You can do this in to-do list, click up notion. There's all sorts of different apps, but if you are working in a place where it's basically a list and you hope that you've got everything. Then I'm sorry to tell you, or maybe I'm excited to tell you that grad school is hard enough without trying to keep all of those tasks all in your brain at the same time.
Offload a little bit of it into the computer. It might just help you.
Experiment number two comes to you by way of one of my darling dearest clients. This is something that they mentioned to me that is a tool that they used when they're feeling particularly overwhelmed.
I thought, Hey, that sounds great. And I've been using it ever since, just for myself and recommending it everywhere I can. It's pretty simple. You grab a post-it note or a piece of paper, if you're feeling particularly overwhelmed and you just write down one thing on it, one task, one post-it note.
I tend to write pretty small. So I'm a lot more like three tasks, one post-it note. But the idea is pretty simple. Everyone has too much to do too much to focus on. And if you're really drowning in that place where, oh, I can't pick, which is going to be the most efficient, I don't know what's going to be the most effective.
And this experiment might really help you just pick something.
Sure. There are some tasks that are dependent on each other. But usually, you know what those are and you know that you can't do one without starting the other. So this is for those moods. When you know that it might be a little bit more efficient, five, 10% maybe to start somewhere else, but you don't want to, you don't feel like it, or you simply can't decide this. You just pick three things, you put them on a post-it note. You do those three things. Repeat.
This is , a great experiment to use in conjunction with a task manager or a longer to do list. . It's a lot like zooming in. You focus the camera on just the first thing, maybe the second or third thing that you're going to do. And then you repeat, there's probably not going to be any end to the bucket of tasks that you're drawing from.
But this lets you just sort of say, yeah, there might be an infinite number of ways to do it, but I'm using this method. This post-it note to just do these one or two things.
And last, but not least might be a revolutionary experiment if you've never tried it. I challenge you in this experiment to clear out 10, 15, maybe even 20% of your tasks. This is a real stale task. Clean-out is what I call it. Basically it's about saying there are some things that I thought I was going to do.
But in the harsh light of today, I'm not doing them. Or it's no longer as useful for me to do them. Or it's just not what I want to do anymore. Uh, Two weeks ago, I thought I did. And now I don't a month ago. I thought I did. And now I don't. Part of what gets so overwhelming is that we have so many things that we could be doing that gets suggested things that we start and then life changes.
Our scholarship changes, our research changes, and we kind of have to say like, okay, This was a really good idea two months ago. And now I don't think it is anymore. I love a stale task clean-out because it helps you remember that you don't have to do everything just because you thought you might.
Of course. There are some tasks that you do need to do. There's some things. That you need to be accountable for. There are certainly some things that just saying, I'm not going to do this. We'll get you out of it. But for all of those things that are more in the should category, I should read that paper. I should catch up on this method. I should send that email. I should follow up on that connection.
put it in its own category and clean it out from time to time.
Like I said up top. There are only so many hours in a day and you don't have, as far as I know. Six different versions of yourself that are pursuing six different projects with six different to-do lists all simultaneously.
So, this is just acknowledging that you're allowed to change your mind. You're allowed to say this was a good idea. Back then. And now. It's not as good of an idea as these other 15 things that I want to do even more.
Unfortunately. We might never get to the place where we feel like everything is completely checked off. But that doesn't mean that you don't get to take a break. It doesn't mean that you don't get to stop for the night or stop for the weekend. And if you have a to-do list that lets you zoom in, zoom out, filter, no matter what the mechanism is, it can really help you get into the habit of saying I didn't do everything, but I did enough for today.
And that mindset switch is one of the things that's going to make grad school a lot less hard. See you next week.
📍 Thank you for listening to Grad School is Hard, but... You can find more information and resources in the show notes and at thrive-phd.com. And if you're liking what you're hearing, please subscribe, rate, and review to help other people find the show. Thanks so much and I'll see you again soon!