Increasing your ability to be effective and have good outcomes

Here is an article which is very practical, and which I think can help increase anyone's ability to be effective, and therefore leave less things to chance.

Thinking anyone may want to create their own personal list of types of lists for their own life (...if you think of something not on the list you can post it in this thread).

Here are the lists which are suggested in the article:

1. Goals List

2. Gratitude List

3. Strengths List

4. Spending List

5. To Do List

6. Gifts List (birthdays of friends and family members)

7. Bucket List

8. Friends List

9. Doctors List

10. Shopping List

11. Wish List (for future purchases)

12. Get Your Sh*t Together List

You can Read more about each category.

For myself, I would probably make only some of the above lists.

I can see adding a "Books to Read List" and maybe even an "Epicurean Philosophy Concepts Study List"

Also, seems like might be good have a method to mark items which are of higher importance or higher priority on a given list.

Here is a good article for list making and getting things done:

I Tried 4 To-Do List Methods. Here’s What Worked.

There are a lot of methods out there for staying organized. But which method prevails? Over four days, I tried four ways of organizing my to-do list. I tracked…

hbr.org

Here is what is in the article:

1. No list, just a calendar:

Quote

Rather than relying on Post-its or productivity apps, use your digital calendar to organize your time. For every task you have to get done, estimate how long it will take, and block that period off in advance. Markovitz argues that this method helps you better prioritize your work, gives you built-in deadlines, and keeps you from prioritizing super easy tasks. ...

...Would I do it again? As much as I love the idea of straight up shredding my to do list, if I were to try this method again, I would approach it a bit differently. I would keep a written to do list and schedule items from it on my calendar each morning. That way, I get both the structure of time-boxing tasks and the satisfaction of crossing them off.

2. Just "do one thing"

Quote

The core concept is: Keep your to do list, but use it only as a reference — not something to work off of. Every time you want to tackle a task, write it down on a Post-It and stick it where you can see it. Then, hide your full list and focus. Once you finish your chosen task, cross it off your list, and start again.

The idea here is that by selecting one task at a time, you’re more likely to follow through on it, as opposed to hopping half-heartedly from task to task (or just staring off into space).

3. A digital task manager

4. Make three lists

Quote

Basically, we have more tasks on our to do list than we can ever imagine completing. When this happens, we get caught up in a never-ending cycle of completing the easiest and most urgent ones, and fail to finish the ones that are most important. Instead of working off of one long list, Rimm suggests keeping three. List #1 is for important non-time-sensitive tasks (aka things you need to do eventually but not today). List #2 is for tasks you need to complete today. List #3 is for tasks that have been on your to do list forever, but that you’re never going to get done.

Once you have all three lists, start with list #2. Schedule the tasks you need to get done today on your calendar (similar to what I did on Monday). Then, take list #1 and schedule those tasks for future dates. By scheduling your tasks by priority, you’re acknowledging that your time is a valuable, finite resource. You’re more likely to complete meaningful work and throw away work that doesn’t really need to be done.