How do lists help the brain

Now, many have criticized lists, but the very act of planning gives us a certain psychological advantage. We better remember the information and can control their time. It is not so important whether we are doing everything that is planned.

Written easier to remember

Compilation of the list of cases is similar to management abstractWhen you read a book or sit at the lecture. Driving record, you process information mentally generalize it, and this, as confirmed by many studies, helps to better remember traveledPam A. Mueller, Daniel M. Oppenheimer.The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard. .

Making a list of cases, you're thinking about their tasks, distribute them in order of importance. Your brain determines that remember in the first place. The more you mind working with some information, the better you perceive it. That's why sometimes we are not even looking at the compiled a list of things you remember.

Planning makes abstract goals into concrete objectives

For most people, the difficulty is not to constantly stay engaged for working hours, and to carry out those big projects, which bring satisfaction work. Typically, such a project - this is an abstract goal that we want to achieve in a few weeks or months. But the problem is that such problems difficult to master, not breaking them down into specific actions that it will be possible to carry out day after day, week after week, month after month.

To-do list will more clearly identify all the necessary actions and prepare for work.

Do lists to help filter out unnecessary

A variety of reasons may prevent you from completing all the scheduled day. A steady stream of e-mail and other messages constantly threatens to take all the time, not to mention the various meetings and conferences, and just unforeseen events. But if you make a list of cases, you somehow have to add them to your calendar, highlight them on time.

Calendaring itself is very useful to deal with different contingencies. Try to plan ahead for a few weeks, when the calendar has more free space. In this case, you may notice that all your time is already painted. Most likely, it is a sign that you have uploaded other less important things, because of which the main work relegated to the background. Perhaps it's time to rearrange your working day.

Output

Even if your list is organized imperfectly, and some tasks you have not been able to perform, yet you went out of the ordinary. You found things that take you extra time, plan out concrete steps to achieve his goal. And it is much more important than just delete any item from the list.