The Brandy Agerbeck Sticky-Note to-do List

I love my planner, it’s my brain. Things come into my mind, I write them down (or text them to myself and then if they’re time sensitive or I want to get them done, they go in my planner.

Our brains are meant to think, not remember dates and times. So there’s no reason to get hard on yourself for forgetting something you didn’t put in your schedule.

In addition to using a planner, I have a structured system for writing, prioritizing and scheduling my to-dos.

After listening to an inspiring interview with Brandy Agerbeck, I decided to trial a new sticky note to-do and prioritization practice. It’s fabulous for the ADHD brain and has a dopamine rich way of rewarding your brain after each task.

I’ve adapted her method to work for me, and I’m super excited to share it with you.

Here’s what you do:

1) Sit and write your to-do list. Create 15-30 of quiet, focused minutes to sit and write down everything you need to do this week and beyond. Keep asking, “what else”. The goal is to get everything out of your head and down on paper.

2) Prioritize. Ask yourself what absolutely needs to get done this week. Most people over-schedule. Be kind to yourself. It takes time to figure out what you can actually accomplish in any given week or day.

3) Start a list for anything that is not top priority. It will either get crossed out completely or it will get put into an online project planner like Asana or on a long-term goal list.

4) Put top priority tasks on sticky notes. What’s key here is to put ONE task on ONE sticky note. Remember that some tasks like “write blog” may actually include multiple tasks. So “write blog” becomes “brainstorm 10 blog ideas”, “outline one blog post”, “research blog topic”, “write first draft”, “edit blog”, “write final edit and publish”, “promote blog to instagram” and “promote blog to email list”. ONE task on ONE sticky note.

5) Stick all sticky noes on a surface. Brandy suggests putting them on the back of a door. Then you can close/open the door if you want/don’t want to look at them.

6) Create a small area and label it “Today”.

7) Move all tasks you want to get done into that area. She recommends only leaving enough space here for one row of sticky notes (or less). Make sure you are being realistic about what you can get done. And this may take practice.

8) Grab ONE thing. When it’s time to work, go to your “Today” section, grab ONE sticky note, sit down and do that one thing until completion.

9) Start a pile to collect your “finished” notes. Every time you add a sticky note to your “finished” section, you give yourself a little hit of dopamine and it feels so good! For some reason, it feels so much better than simply crossing off something on my to-do list.

Now it’s your turn, try this for 3 weeks and then email me at: gretalewanski@gmail.com to tell me

1) what went well,

2) what didn’t go well and

3) how you can adapt it to get the best results for yourself.

GO HERE to order my favorite planner of all times.

GO HERE to listen to the full interview with Brandy Agerbeck.