Discover New Ways to Brain Dump Your To Dos!

As a working mom with a ton of inputs coming in all day long, I add a lot of random tasks to my to do list. For example, If I hear about a good book, I quickly add it to my to do list and then later when I’m processing my new tasks in my inbox, I’ll add that book to my To Read list in my separate tracker for books. Anything I want to remember such as good recipes to try, cool sites to check out, shows to watch, I will quickly add them to my to do list inbox to deal with and route later. 

To do this, I like to check out any integration options my to do list might have in order to get tasks into my system easily or even automatically. I highly recommend you review your To do list app to see what your options are. 

For example, I use the Toodledo (this is a referral link) task system. With this system, I have a dedicated email address that I can send an email to and it will create a to do item. That way, if I’m in my email system and I have something I want to create a task for, I don’t have to open up my to do system. I can forward that email to my dedicated email address and a task will automatically be created with a few details from the email. 

There are also browser extensions for Toodledo and there may be for your task system as well. These extensions can be installed into your browser and then as you are surfing the web, if you think of a task you need to create, you can quickly use that extension to create the task. 

Finally, I have even used a “middle-man” app called If This, Then That (IFTTT) to trigger the creation of tasks.  For example, this app will create a to do in Toodledo whenever I add a reminder on my iPhone. This is a very useful tool when I want to set up tasks automatically triggered by different actions. 

So how can you implement this? Review your to do system. If you are using an app, look into the app’s features to see what integration points are available for you to use to quickly get reminders and tasks from your brain immediately into your system. If you are using a more manual option, how can you keep a small notebook with you or another option to make sure you can quickly get items onto your list as soon as you think of them? 

Track those systems so you can hack them! Have a Level 10 day.