How to Make a Super Effective To-Do List

Sup guys. Happy Valentine's Day!! If you're a lover, I hope you're having a lovely day/night. If you're single, do not watch any Nicholas Sparks movies. Trust me. It's a mistake. 

Anyways, let's get going. In case you haven't noticed, I'm obsessed with planning and organizing and making lists and scheduling and planning. I'm very analytical minded. I'm also a student, I have a job + a blog (surprise!). And of course, what happens when you mix that? An insatiable lust for to-do lists. Yes. I make about six a day on average. So basically, I'm an expert.

You might make to-do lists + hopefully, they help you get stuff done. BUT, I thought I'd share a couple of the things I've learned that can help you karate chop your way through that list.

Write out everything.

Some people definitely disagree with this one, so feel free to ignore it. But when I make my to-do list every day, I write down absolutely everything I have to do. That includes brushing my teeth (or at least 'morning routine'), eating lunch, and exercising. Just because it's on the to-do list doesn't mean it's work, it just means I'm planning time for it in my day. BUT notice I said write down the things you have to do. Not everything you 'could do.' Keep it simple so that you don't get overwhelmed by the sheer number of things on your to-do list. 

Choose concrete tasks.

Okay, you've heard this. Don't say 'work on design project'. Try writing 'insert picture from email + design border for the hello blurb' or something applicable to what you do. Make your tasks small + manageable too. Instead of 'clean the house', try 'take out the trash, wipe down kitchen counters + pick up clothes on bedroom floor.' Cleaning the house sounds scary but anyone can do those three little tasks!

Prioritize your tasks.

The second thing I do is prioritize all of my tasks by how important they are. The things with the soonest deadline are first and the last things are the items that I want to work on + should work on but that there will be no tangible consequence if I don't (i.e. I won't get fired). I just write a circled number next to each task; it only takes a minute. This helps me make sure that my most important tasks (sometimes called MITs or MVTs if you read productivity blogs) get done before the marginal things.

Set time goals.

Look at each item. If it's something you're going to want to do for awhile or might get caught up in (aka catch up on blog reading or emailing), set a time limit for, say, 30 minutes. You can even plan to have two chunks of 30 minutes at different times of the day. 

Then, see if you have any items that are time-based that you need a goal length of time. For me, that might be reading for a class. I don't technically have to do it, so if I don't have a goal, yeah I'm stopping after fifteen minutes so I can retreat to Netflix. For items like this, set a goal time (such as 30 minutes). For every other item, just write an estimated amount of time. This will help you be realistic about how much time you have in a day + how much you can get done. 

Plan out your day.

Our your afternoon or lunch break or whatever. Think about how much time you have and how much of that time you can actually work. Pick items, based on your priorities, until you have enough goal tasks to fill up your day. I like to start with something productive but relatively quick. If I have just a small piece of a design left for a client, I'll do it right off the bat. By starting off my day getting something done, I've set my pace for the rest of the day. When I'm planning out my day, I like to write out each of my tasks in order + create a loose time schedule to my day. My schedules are fluid (which is why I change them about six times a day haha) but they can still keep me on track.

Plan space into your day.

I've been working with this system for maybe a year now, so I know pretty well how long everything takes me. I cushion 5-10 minutes in between every task in case is takes longer than I expect or I run into some other roadblock. Also, every few hours, I plan 20-30 minutes that is meant for a real break. Walking around, talking to people, and getting outside are all great ways to take a mini-break + refresh yourself for finishing your to-do list. 

To-do lists: love 'em or leave 'em? Do you have a method for getting things done?

4 Ways to Get More Out of Your iTunes Library

Guys, it's about to get nerdy in here. Get excited.

Let's start with a bit of a story about Allie, shall we? So over the last three or four years, my dad has made me take four or five of those "career placement" tests--you know, the one's that ask you to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how fun 'building a birdhouse' or 'answering the phone' sounds to you (hint: the answer's always 1). Basically, my dad thought that as there's no way I was capable of knowing what I wanted to do with my life so I had to get some people in an office a thousand miles away to tell me.

Anyways so every time I had to take one, 6 to 9 weeks later, I'd get a massive package in the mail, with all the answers I need for my life, ever (sarcasm). Every single time, the tests told me the same thing. I should work with science (not people! ha, they know I'm an introvert), numbers, data, etc, etc. Well actually one time, a test recommended me for 'personal services'...meaning being a bartender or a manicurist. Yep. (Not that there's anything wrong with either of those, just not for me.)

Point is, I have a through-and-through, dictionary definition analytical mind. But I could have told you that. I mean, I'm the girl that plans out her day down to the minute and tries to get through boring runs by squaring numbers in her head. I could have saved you the money, Dad.

I literally analyze everything (guys, I promise I'm fun!). And my iTunes library is no exception. I get all organize-y and analyze-y to the max when it comes to things I love, so of course I have to constantly organize my iTunes library. So please, allow me to teach you my ways, young grasshoppers.

Remind yourself of forgotten music. 

Click the little squarey thing in the top left corner >> New >> New Smart Playlist. Then select "Last Played" and "is before" and then a date, I recommend a year before today. You may find some old favorites that you've just forgotten about (especially if you have a large-ish library like me) or you may just want to trash them all.

Delete that music that you think you like but actually hate. 

In theory, I really like the band Bon Iver. Y'know, they're folksy and acoustic-y and I dig that. So if someone asked me if I like them, I'd say yeah, sure. But my iTunes library "skip" filter tells the truth. The more you 'skip' a song (meaning it comes up in a playlist or shuffle and you click to the next song), the more you honestly don't like them. To see your skips, right-click on the menu bar on the top (with song/artist/time/date added/stuff like that) and select skips. Then sort it and see which songs you skip most. Just delete them. You can do it.

Rate your music + create a system. 

I almost hate to say it because I know it takes awhile but I've found it to be worth it. So if you're not super obsessed with music (like me), you can skip this. But if you are, make sure you're rating. As much as you can. As you're listening to it, try to take a second to click a rating in. Make definitions for what each rating means for you. For me, 5 stars would be a song I play over and over again. A song doesn't usually stay on 5 stars forever though. When I get a little tired of it, I bump it down to 4 stars, which means that I really like it. 3 stars means I like listening to it, but not all the time. 2 stars means I like the song but I'm really tired of it. Anything that deserves a rating below that should be deleted. I choose not to rate songs that aren't normal listening music. This means holiday music or music that I only listen to while working out or studying. I also try to go back through and rerate my 2 stars every once in awhile.

I like to make a few different playlists out of my ratings. One smart playlist is out of 5 star songs. The second is out of 4 star songs that haven't been played in at least a week. Then the third smart playlist is 3 star songs that haven't been played in at least a month. I put all three of these into a folder and shuffle from the folder. It tends to make a really nice mix of current favorites and songs that I like but haven't heard in a little while.

Delete duplicate songs.

For an easy, quick(ish) way to clean out your library, click view>>show duplicates. Delete the duplicates. You're welcome.

Next time, I want to show you all how I really analyze my iTunes library to find out more about my music-listening patterns. I promise you, it'll be so nerdy.

Until then, over and out.

Weekly Wishes #11: cacti + baby steps + design

Hey all. It's Monday, you know what that means! Today, I'm linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes. The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! Is this the prettiest picture ever or what? I love bright things.

Last week, I wished for a few things and was pretty successful! I worked pretty hard to get my body on a good sleep schedule. My lights weren't always out by 10:30 but I slowly but surely moved from falling asleep at 3 am to 11:30 pm. Baby steps. I also did lots of cleaning and unpacked everything from the summer! Yayz! I also sort of randomly got a futon from my sister so I cleaned a lot to make room for that. I scheduled out this whole week to help me get through the craziness but still have time for this little lovely munchkin of a blog. I've got some exciting posts coming up--especially a guest post from Stacey over at Grace Believer.

This week, I did a lot of design work which was really exciting for me! Most recently, I did a big design for Caitlyn at ChemGradBoom. It was really fun for me to make a really cute, but chemistry-themed design--check it out! I'm really loving that I can do something that satisfies me while making a little money! If you're in the market for some new digs for your blog, noodle on over to my design page.

But despite all that fun, school starts tomorrow. Cue the conflicting emotions. I'm excited to see friends and learn stuff and all but I'm not excited to get up early and die slowly under the mountain of work.

But anyways, here are my wishes:

• Not die. This should be easy, but I'm seriously skeptical. 


• Exercise! Now that I'm home and settled in, it's time to start working out again. Anyone have any great home workouts they like to do?


• Contact teachers about recommending me as a tutor. Simple enough. I'm a tutor who needs a job, they need tutors.

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective and join the Weekly Wish link up.

What are you wishing for this week? Any recommended workouts for me this week? I'm thinking Blogilates maybe...