There’s a thing called Zero-Based Budgeting. I’m not a math person. Or, particularly, a bookkeeping/accounting person. But Zero-Based Budgeting is a concept that appeals to me.
Basically, it involves zeroing out your budget at the end of the month. That doesn’t mean spending every penny. It means giving every penny a job. So, in the end, you don’t have any dangling pennies that don’t have a place to live.
Hopefully, some of them get to live in your savings account.
It occurred to me recently that the same could be done with my to-do list.
Zero-Based To-Do List
Maybe someone else has come up with this. I couldn’t find it, if they have. Except, I know that lots of people have talked about big to-do lists and using symbols to note what’s been done or moved or delegated, etc.
That’s the basis of Bullet Journaling, right? It’s also the basis of keeping a running to do list. And the Getting Things Done method. (I think. I really struggle with wrapping my head around GTD.)
I was able to find some reference to zero-based scheduling—but that’s not the same at all. Zero-based scheduling seems to involve scheduling every single minute of every single day, even if you’re scheduling time to not work. Which, frankly, sounds horrifying.
If that works for you, you should totally do it. But it would be awful for me. I’d feel boxed in and claustrophobic by lunch on Monday.
I found a reference to to-do list zero (similar to inbox zero, which is having no unread emails.) But that was about delegating everything possible on your to-do list. Not what I’m going for.
What’s always happens to me is this: I make my list, but I abandon it. Because at some point, it’s too big. Or too boring. Or too—something.
So I make a different list for the next day or the next week. And maybe I got everything done last time, or maybe I didn’t. Who knows? Who can even remember? I can’t even tell by looking at my list, half the time.
The idea of actually zeroing out my list on a daily basis, though. That feels revolutionary to me.
Basically, all it involves is spending about two minutes at the end of the day looking at my to do list and marking it up.
My Zero-Based To-Do List System
I plan a week at a time in a B6 Stalogy notebook (affiliate). One page per day for my to-do list, a page for a running to-do list for this week (these are things I need or want to do, but I don’t know yet when) and a page for a running to do list for next week (these are things that I need or want to do, but not this week. Usually I mean to do them next week, but I still add it even if I’m not sure when I’ll do it.)
If I finished something, I give it a check mark. It’s done. Yay! (I often do this throughout the day as I finish things.)
If I didn’t finish it (or even start it) but I still plan to, I draw a line through it, with an arrow pointing to the right (i.e. tomorrow.) And then I write that to do list item somewhere else. There are three possibilities.
Tomorrow or another day THIS WEEK (I plan a week at a time, from Monday through Sunday) if I know which day I want to get back to that thing.
This week’s running to do list if I’m not sure which day I want to work on it, but I know I want to work on it this week.
Next week’s running to do list if I know I want to work on that thing at some point, but not this week.
When I plan next week on Sunday, I start with ‘next week’s running to do list.’ If that thing isn’t something for that particular week, I just write it on the ‘next week’s running to do list’ for the next week.
If it’s something I know I’m not going to need or want to work on for a long time, I add a note in my monthly work calendar for the month when I want to remember to add it to my to do lists again.
If I have decided I don’t need to do that thing anymore, I just cross it off, no arrow. The end.
So, at the end of every day, my to-do list is at zero. No key required for remembering a bunch of different symbols. This is not totally dissimilar from Bullet Journaling—just pared down to it’s absolute basic parts.
And focusing on getting your daily list to zero every day. Not because you did all the things, but because you’ve addressed them all in some way. Even if that way is to say—yeah, I’m not doing that today. Or ever.
Sometimes, I move the same task from day to day for days on end. Or even weeks. For instance, I’ve wanted to schedule a haircut for about two weeks. At some point, I’m going to actually do it, if for no other reason than I’m sick of writing it down.
I don’t often have things that get marked off completely, because I’m taking them off my list all together. At least half of my to-do list is my teaching schedule and because I make my to do list everyday, I don’t actually wind up with much on my list that I don’t honestly intend to get done eventually.
So, I’m more likely to move it to another day than remove it entirely. But there are exceptions.
If I need to cancel a class for some reason, that would get marked off completely. No arrow. If I’ve skipped doing something for a really long time, I might re-evaluate whether I really want to or need to do it at all. And sometimes I think I need to do something and realize later that I really don’t.
If I delegate something, by the way, I give myself a check mark. It got done. I don’t actually have to be the one to do it. If it’s important, I’ll make a note about who it was delegated to.
So, if I couldn’t teach a class, but Adrienne or Meg or Juneta filled in for me, I’d checkmark and note who taught the class in case I needed to remember that later. If the class was cancelled, I’d draw a line through it.
Here’s a picture of my zeroed to-do list for Monday and Tuesday of this week.
I’m a pretty messy planner. I’m not a minimalist, at all. I like bright colors and washi tape and stickers. At the bottom of these pages, I was playing around with a little portable printer my husband gave me for Christmas, so they’re even messier than usual.
What your to-do list looks like is not the important part.
This would work perfectly well with a calmer notebook full of neat writing and neutral colors. Or where ever you keep your to do list for the day. If you keep a digital to do list, I’m sure it could work that way, too.
Just make sure that at the end of the day, every thing on your list has a home. Either it’s done, it still needs to be done (or finished), or it’s not going to be done at all.
I call this processing my bullet journal. Every day, either at the end of the day or the beginning (depends on how many squirrels I chased at the end of the day) I go through and either use a > next to the task saying I'm adding it to the next day's list, or I mark it out completely, as in I don't want to do it. I sometimes use the < symbol to say it's scheduled but that's actually kind of rare. I keep things in my calendar that have to do with scheduling or doing things on specific days.
Love these ideas! I mostly use Todoist for my to-do list, but I might try your method.