IDT - I Done This Memo

<aside> 💡 The purpose of this doc is to pull out nuggets of insights from ‣ to inform sales, marketing, and product

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Why To-Do Lists Disappoint and Overwhelm

Based on a study conducted on users the first. version of I Done This

Every person always have unfinished tasks

Tasks that get completed are done quickly

What you get done often doesn’t correlate with what you set out to do

4 Common problems why you aren’t getting things done

<aside> 📜 Too Many To-Do’s

Typical person has 150 different tasks at a time - Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
The longer the list the less powerful it becomes
Overstuffed list decreases productivity, drop in physical and mental health
To-do list is a double edge sword - It helps us remember the many things we have to tackle. At the same time, it’s a nagging tool that can induce unhealthy, disarming anxiety. </aside>

<aside> 🚫

We Mistake the Function of To-Do Lists

Your to-do list’s mental badgering isn’t to provoke you to get stuff done!
Everyone suffers from the Zeigarnik effect - distracting, nagging thoughts about uncompleted tasks and unmet goals hanging around in your mind
In order words, the Zeigarnik effect is your unconscious “asking the conscious mind to make a plan.” It’s not asking the conscious mind to get off its butt to complete some tasks
Our to-do lists fail us when we don’t think through steps and plans.
when our lists grow long, it becomes impossible and ineffective to plan out everything </aside>

<aside> ⌛ We Give Ourselves Too Much Time

when our lists grow long, it becomes impossible and ineffective to plan out everything
when people did complete tasks, they did them quickly.
When goals are broken into actionable steps, it takes less effort, energy, and time to cross those smaller, manageable tasks off the list.
we tend to be lenient on assigning ourselves deadlines, which means the chances increase that the task will never get done.
the more time you give yourself, the less likely it is that you’ll finish in that timeframe </aside>

<aside> 🔮 The Future is Full of Unknowns, Interruptions, and Change

Only 15% of our members’ dones started out as to-do tasks
dones won’t match up with to-do’s if you’re not great at formulating well-planned to-do tasks to begin with.
When you don’t outline specific actions for your goals but do take some forward steps, that progress won’t correlate with the original task.
the most common reason for failure to get through a to-do list was unplanned tasks such as unscheduled calls, e-mails, and meetings.
your to-do list can’t handle the changes that crop up because we can’t tell the future. </aside>

5 Ways to Make Your To-Do List More Effective

<aside> 👏 Give yourself a pat on the back.

Since our minds get overloaded to the point of distraction, forgive yourself for not getting to 150 tasks
be realistic about what you can do in a day and remember that accomplishments don’t always start out as to-do’s.
Writing down what you get done regularly is a motivating, revealing and useful practice </aside>

<aside> ✅ Make more specific, actionable plans.

Reach your goals by spending some time thinking about what that journey will look like
Go from “write blog post” to “do some research for a blog post about to-do-lists” </aside>

<aside> 🛣️ Use implementation intentions in your planning.

Implementation intention is a planning strategy that uses an “if-then” framework to push you toward a desired action.
Describe a certain situation like when or where into the “if” part of the formula and then, specifics of how and what form the “then” part
For example, if I want to exercise more “If it is 6 p.m. on a weekday, I will head to the gym for at least half an hour after work.” </aside>

<aside> ⏱️ Assign yourself deadlines, and make them earlier than you’d like.

assign due dates for your items or scheduling them into your calendar to provide some time-based context to them.
make those deadlines earlier rather than later. </aside>