A New Organizational Method - Weekly “Bucket Lists”

I love a to do list, but I often find them overwhelming. On any given day, I can achieve a handful of tasks but my list includes double or triple that number. It can feel discouraging to move the tasks that hadn’t been completed to the next day and the next and the next - even if the task is a fun one (visiting a new coffee shop)! Can you relate?

A new method that I’m trialing is what I’ve called “bucket lists” instead of “to do lists.”

In my reminders app on my phone (which I have as a widget, too) I’ve created a specific list for the week that I cull through on Sunday evenings. The key when deciding on the list for the week is that it needs to be a “menu” of things that would be great to do. If you have a time-sensitive task or an absolute deadline, this may not be the right format for that task.

Here are a few examples from this week:

• Buy our tickets for the aquarium this weekend (just needs to be done by Saturday morning)

• Run 3 times

• Post one post to the blog (hi!)

• Try out the new coffee shop down the street (this is a solid example because I knew I wanted to go check it out but I was just going by myself so there isn’t a need to specifically pencil in my calendar)

• Try a tea recipe from a recent book I read (if you’re wondering, Earl Grey with lemon and honey)

• Input weekly expenses into budget tracker

• Call back the financial planner

• Put on a fake tan

Have you tried this method before, or anything similar? I’d love to hear what works for you!