Are you someone who wanders through their day aimlessly? Putting out one fire after another? Allowing hour after hour to be hijacked by someone or something else? Do you go to bed at night, having no idea what, if anything, you accomplished that day towards your important goals? 

Or are you someone who faithfully writes a to do list and follows it each day? Do you finish your days feeling like you’ve gotten done what you set out to do? And are your days filled with purposeful action? Many experts, entrepreneurs, and high achievers believe that a simple to do list is a critical tool to achieving success and making the most out of your life. Here are ten top benefits of To Do Lists and how they can change your life for the better!

1. Reduces Anxiety – When you feel like you have a million things to do, it can get very overwhelming. Getting all of those things out of your head and down on paper, can instantly begin to reduce stress. Whether it’s because it doesn’t appear as bad as you thought once you see it spelled out in front of you, or maybe it’s because you aren’t worried about forgetting something important, either way, your mind begins to feel relief once it starts to sense a bit of control over the situation.
2. Improves Focus – Use your To Do list as your own personal road map to success. When you feel yourself starting to drift, grab your list, take a look, and refocus on what you need to get done.
3. Increases Self Esteem – Bask in that feeling of accomplishment every time you get to cross something off your list that you’ve completed. That boost of success will propel you forward, increasing productivity and keeping you even more motivated. 
4. Helps You Prioritize – Putting together a To Do list can help you figure out which tasks are most important and where to begin each day. Get the most critical and most difficult items done first, and the rest of your day will be a breeze.
5. Creates Accountability – There’s something about putting something in writing that gives it life. Once you have a task written down on your To Do list, you have basically made a promise to yourself that you intend to complete it, don’t let yourself down.
6. Helps You Delegate – Once you get everything on your To Do list, you will hopefully find that there are some items that you can delegate. Ask a friend, family member or hire someone to help you out.
7. Creates Structure – Rather than surviving your days jumping from one thing to the next never really feeling like you’ve successfully accomplished anything, making a To Do list helps to create order and structure. It can serve as a guide on how to work your way through your day.
8. Improves Sleep – Moving your To Dos out of your head and onto a list, especially before bed, can help you get a better night’s sleep. Rather than lying awake fretting about everything you need to get done or afraid that you will forget something, you instead have an action plan ready to go the next morning.
9. Organizes Your Thoughts – Getting everything down on paper helps to get things organized, especially on large or complex projects. Seeing all of the steps in front of you, can allow you to break down the task into smaller more manageable pieces that are easier to accomplish.
10. Improves Time Management – It’s amazing how much you can get done, when you have a plan. Think of your To Do list as your action plan for the day. Rather than wasting time, when you get a free moment, you can head straight to your list to see what’s next. Or if something unexpected comes up, you can quickly make adjustments to the rest of your day when everything is organized and in one place.

Now that I’ve convinced you that using a To Do list will help you to be more organized, productive, and efficient in your life, here are a few quick tips on how to create your own To Do List.

1. Be Specific – Each task listed on your To Do list should be very specific and actionable. Think micro not macro items.
2. Be Realistic – Set yourself up for success not failure. Don’t overfill your daily To Do list with enough items for a month, just list what you can reasonably accomplish in a day.
3. Be Creative – Make your To Do list fun, use pictures or graphics if it makes sense, add fun stuff on your list too, like going to the movies or out to dinner. To Do lists aren’t just for work and things you don’t want to do.
4. Make Multiple Lists – Create multiple To Do lists. You can break them down time-wise like daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or even break them down by area of your life like work, home, and school.

Do you use To Do Lists? How do they benefit you?
Please let me know in the comments!