Passion Planning: How to Write a Personal To-Do List

Chapter

Apr 13 2016

Gold Tape

passion-planner-personal-to-do-list-ideas

Wondering what to do with the “Personal To-Do List” section of the Passion Planner?

Well, personally, I love that it’s there to separate work from play. When I was a student, these columns helped me balance how much “work” I could manage each week. I put all of my dissertation and website tasks together in the work column, while the Personal column helped me rest, recharge, and keep adventuring.

Here’s how I decide what to put in my Personal To-Do List:

 

Planning

Every Sunday I sit in a new café to reflect on my week. The Passion Planner has a monthly reflection section, but I prefer to reflect one week at a time, then review my responses at the end of the month.

Personal development courses

I devote 30 minutes each week to whatever I’m working on. I just finished Gala Darling’s DARE/DREAM/DO course, and am now working through Amelia Quint’s Elemental Astrology. Sarah Starrs’ Daydream Revolution is about to start up again, so that’s my next project!

Working on my book

I’m co-writing a middle grade novel, which is a huge project, so just setting aside a bit of time to sit down and chip away at it keeps the momentum going.

Reflecting in my sugar diary

I am trying to cut down my sugar intake, so reflecting a bit each week about how much I’ve consumed and how it makes me feel helps me check in with my reality.

Working on the month’s Personal Projects

These are the projects I decide on at the beginning of the month using the calendar page. Usually these involve one fitness/health challenge and one that tackles an item on my Birthday List. This month I’m in training to hike Ben Nevis, and am ticking off the last few Shakespeare plays I haven’t read yet.

Errands

These usually require me to sit down at the computer and focus on something (like travel, or booking tickets), or go for a walk to pick up a physical item.

One last thing:

Those little boxes next to each task are for time estimates! I find it most effective to limit tasks to 60 minutes. If it goes beyond that, I put it in a different box. When I was training for my 10K race, for example, I had “run Monday”, “run Tuesday”, “run Wednesday” as separate tasks rather than clumping them together as something like “run every day” with extra tick boxes. This gives me a more visual sense of how much time a task will take up.

 

Do you have a personal to-do list? How do you decide what goes on it? Let’s compare notes!
xandra-signature
P.S. If you’re purchasing your own Passion Planner, use code XANDRA10 to get a 10% discount.
Play Audiobook

Be my pen pal!