The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

Hard­ly the tuft that top­ples the load

Does this mean that I also rec­om­mend you mix all your work-relat­ed to-do-tasks with all the things you have to do in your pri­vate life in one sin­gle list? No, not nec­es­sar­i­ly. As I see it, this is a mat­ter of pref­er­ence and up to you. It is not the most impor­tant pil­lar of struc­ture and the deci­sion one way or the oth­er will not be the tuft that makes it top­ple over.

Is any­one else watching?

The crux is whether or not some­one else needs insight into your struc­ture and plan­ning. If I was an employ­ee in a com­pa­ny (espe­cial­ly if it was a gov­ern­ment-con­trolled busi­ness) where oth­ers could view my to-do-list, I would not feel com­fort­able keep­ing all my pri­vate doings in, for instance, the Out­look Tasks I use for work. If this was the case, I would have sep­a­rat­ed work and pri­vate life into two dif­fer­ent lists. This would have been com­plete­ly OK since it would be clear to me (as it prob­a­bly is to you in your life as well) when I was in ​”work-mode” and when I was my pri­vate self.

But, I am employed in a very small busi­ness that has only one employ­ee — myself. This means that no-one else needs to view my to-do-list or data, which is why I some­times mix per­son­al and work-relat­ed to-do-items on the same list and in the same tool.

Only you can decide what will work best for you.

Do this

If you still have not made up your mind as to how you should han­dle this mat­ter, take a moment right now and think it over. Should you mix every­thing you have to do in the same list or keep work and your per­son­al life separate?

To help you make the mat­ter clear­er, you could ask yourself:

• Are you the only one who needs to view and have an insight into your work-relat­ed tasks?
  
• Is the list as eas­i­ly acces­si­ble when you are not at work as when you are?
  
• Do you find it easy or hard to ​”dis­con­nect” from work-relat­ed tasks when you are not at work, even if you should hap­pen to catch a glimpse of some­thing that has to do with work?

If you answered ​”no” to any of these ques­tions, then you will prob­a­bly be wise to sep­a­rate the work-list from your per­son­al to-do-list. If you still need access to your per­son­al list when you are at work, since you, like myself, some­times come to think of things con­cern­ing your pri­vate life in the mid­dle of the work­day, you could keep your per­son­al list in an online ser­vice such as Todoist. That way you can view the per­son­al list in your inter­net brows­er or on your phone with­out hav­ing to include it into the to-do-list tool you use at work.

Clear bound­aries and quick­ly in control

If you sep­a­rate your per­son­al to-do-list from your work-relat­ed list you will make the bound­ary between when you are at work and when you are free and at home, even more clear. If you keep every­thing in one sin­gle list, you will always be able to see all the things you have to do — regard­less if it con­cerns your work or per­son­al life. It is up to you to decide what ben­e­fit you appre­ci­ate and val­ue more.

What is your way?

How did you solve this com­mon issue? Do you keep your lists sep­a­rate or mixed into one big one? Please write to me and share your thoughts.

(Yes, hav­ing sev­er­al to-do-lists is not the end of the world!)