As long as I’ve known him, my husband has kept a daily list of priorities. He even numbers them, with the 1s being things that need immediate attention, on down to those things that will only happen when there’s abundant extra time. He modifies this list frequently, and refers to it daily.

I’ve seen that practice for over 13 years now, and I’ve decided to give a modified version of it a try. Unlike him, I don’t plan to keep a huge list of everything that I think I need to do in the indefinite temporary, but instead write down three or four small things that I want to make sure happen on that particular day.

Right now, on my calendar, I mark things we have scheduled: plans with friends, appointments, concerts or performances (which we attend several times a month), story time at the library, as well as things we plan to do on a particular day but aren’t hard scheduled, such as trips to the market, post office, or bank.

Most of the other big things that require my attention happen as a part of my daily routines. I spend lots of time each day reading to and engaging in learning activities with my boys. I take care of things around our house. I prepare healthy food for us. I squeeze in time to write whenever I can.

The things that need to be on my daily to-do list aren’t the big objects in my day, they’re the little things I want to do, but that I’m likely to forget on any particular day because I get distracted from the small, quiet to-do list in my mind. I need reminders for items such as writing a thank you note to a friend, dropping a request to our local dairy to change the size of our milk share, or bringing a small surprise over to a neighbor. While keeping these little items on a mental to-do list worked well for me prior to having two children, I now find that I get to the end of the day and often realize that I got distracted one too many times to complete those couple of small-but-important things that I would have liked to do.

So, this week I’ve been keeping a short to-do list for each day; no more than 4 small items, and sometimes simply one big item. It’s helped me to keep track of those little things that might otherwise get overlooked, and made it so I don’t have to worry about getting distracted into forgetting things that I want or need to do.  For instance, my husband cleaned out a cabinet and put together a box of things that I need to assess. Because this is a big item, my list for tomorrow says one thing: Sort through box in garage: Freecycle or put away items.

Do you keep a Daily To-Do List? Do you find it helpful? What sort of items do you put on it? Do you keep a long or short list? I’m curious to hear how other people keep track of things.