Why To-Do Lists are Utterly Superior to Calendars

If you’ve been reading my posts by now you know I’m a huge fan of to-do lists. I live and die by the to-do. One thing that comes up very often in relation to to-do lists is a calendar.

A Calendar is a very popular mechanism people use to plan out their day, similar to a to-do list. Every corporate workplace uses calendars to keep track of meetings. I do believe in these cases the use of a calendar in addition to a to-do list can be beneficial. Adding major events to a calendar can help you better manage your day. However, I know many people that plan their entire life on a calendar, from the moment they wake up, to when they need to eat, exercise, go to their job, and sleep. It’s basically a detailed, worst version of a to-do list.

I strongly believe to-do lists are superior to calendars, for a number of reasons. I am going to break down why putting your life on a calendar might not be the best idea:

Smaller Tasks

In the introduction, I mentioned how calendars can work great in addition to a to-do list. The reason for this is that if you have a 1 or 2 hour event, it can be helpful to block it off from your calendar. However, calendars are not best suited for smaller or shorter tasks. Having 10 to 15 minute tasks on your calendar can get a little crazy. You need to fit in time for your work commute, to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, walk the dog…even use the bathroom?! If that’s the case, you are probably doing something wrong. Having your entire day planned out detail by detail on a calendar is just too much. Especially when not if, unexpected tasks start to pop up during the day.

One way to avoid this is leaving open space aka “free time” on your calendar to complete the smaller tasks.

Unexpected Tasks

If you have your entire day planned out with no room for free time, you will start to panic when last-minute things pop up. And trust me, unexpected occurrences are bound to happen. When an emergency needs your attention, or you need to put out a fire, it can throw off your entire schedule. This is much easier to adjust on a to-do list. It will be more difficult on a calendar that is constructed and bound by time.

Setting Timelines

Let’s be honest, you probably don’t know how to plan! This is why every good team needs to have a project manager on staff. It is also why project management is a rapidly growing industry, expected to grow by an outstanding 33% from 2017-2027. You might think you know exactly how time-consuming a certain project will be, but you are probably off. Humans are notoriously terrible at estimating how long something will take to complete. Again, this causes problems when you are putting everything onto a calendar on your phone that is scheduled and organized by time.

A great alternative is to pick the top 3 most important things that need to be accomplished each day and making sure those tasks get done. This way you are not under a time restriction to complete your tasks and you will have much more freedom and time. It will also make you more productive as you will be focusing on the important stuff, not just busywork.

Overall, calendars certainly can have a place in your life, but they offer a lot less flexibility than a to-do list does. Keeping track of important events, dates, and repeating tasks can be a useful way of using a calendar. However, to-do’s can include tasks both large, small, and everything in-between with tons of flexibility and a greater sense of achievement.

Best,

Eric