Does your to-do list still make sense?

Ethan Schoonover has written a helpful post about managing tasks in which he recommends the following:

“Write your tasks as if you are delegating them to someone you actually know.”

His point is that by writing down tasks clearly enough that someone you know could understand them, you’ll be providing enough context so that when you return to the task in the future you’ll be able to know what the heck you were talking about. If you’ve done it right, the task will be actionable as soon as you see it again, with no additional processing required.