Imagine you buy a nice new wardrobe.
Solid wood, brass handles, and hangers for your nice shirts. Compartments for your pants, compartments for your socks, a dedicated space for your belts—the whole shebang.
You put the wardrobe together and start filling it up.
You iron your shirts and put them on hangers. You fold your sweaters and your pants. You roll up your belts and neatly tuck them away.
Satisfied, you admire the results of your work.
So much better than when your clothes were scattered throughout your home: draped over random chairs, in a pile on your bed, on the drying rack for days (and dry all the while).
Now, you’ll always be able to find whatever clothing piece you need, when you need it. And you can instantly see what your outfit options are for today.
Being organized feels great.
But what happens over time?
Will your wardrobe stay this organized if you just randomly throw new clothes into it whenever you buy them? If you rummage through your drawers in a hurry without putting things back in their place afterwards? If you never throw out old clothes?
No. Your wardrobe becomes a mess, hardly any better than when you just threw your clothes all over the place.
This is what happens to people who take the time just once to organize their to-dos, but never set up a maintenance system.
Their task management system looks amazing—for about five minutes.
Within weeks, their system is an absolutely mess. Half the to-dos are no longer relevant. Dozens of tasks are overdue. Project statuses are woefully out of date.
They might as well have no system at all.
I’ve been teaching people to organize their to-dos and projects since 2019. Thousands of people have enrolled in my programs and I’ve worked with over 100 people one-on-one.
What’s the common thread?
People who maintain their system see long-term success.
People who don’t… don’t.
Just like you need to tidy up your wardrobe periodically, you need to tidy up your task management system. (And your emails and your notes and your calendar.)
The way to do this is with a weekly review.
In fact, reviewing your to-dos, projects, and inboxes once a week is the #1 predictor of long-term productivity success.
It is the foundational productivity habit.
Doing a review isn’t hard and doesn’t take much time—as long as you’re doing it right. And most people don’t do it right.
That’s why I made this cheat sheet to help you out.
Don’t keep throwing stuff into your productivity wardrobe until it’s a gigantic mess.
Download the cheat sheet today and learn to stay organized, once and for all.