As the semester draws to a close, my to do list seems to be growing by the second. Between school, work, Girl Scouts, job applications, and masters paper writing I’m swimming in deadlines. To keep everything straight I’ve been trying to streamline my to do list system but I haven’t quite found a winner. Here are a few products that I’ve tried.

1. Sticky notes on my planner
   These worked well for a few days but my planner is just too big to haul around everywhere. I ended up creating more post-it notes when I was out and about, but these never quite made it back to the planner.
   
2. A separate Moleskine
   I used this system throughout undergrad. I’d keep a planner and a separate small moleskine with my to do lists. It allows plenty of room to write and organize, plus it’s small enough to fit in a pocket. This time around it doesn’t work so well because all of my to dos have very specific deadlines (i.e. Tuesday at 3:00pm) and those are hard to keep track of without a planner nearby.
   
3. ToDoist
   I have friends who use this task management software and love it. Me, not so much. I hate that it doesn’t sync with my iPhone unless I pay extra and the tagging system was just too convoluted.
   
4. GTD list
   The mother of all organization systems, the Getting Things Done Method is more of a lifestyle than a to do list. No matter how much I wanted this to work for me (as evidenced by the fact I’ve check the book out of the library 5 times), it’s too complicated and time-consuming. I was trying to save time, not create more to do!
   
5.  Apple Reminders
   This is my current system. I really like that I can create and color code a lot of calendars, because it keeps my to dos organized. Even better, it syncs with my iPhone and iPad, plus I can access it from any computer via iCloud. There are a few downsides: I don’t like that there isn’t a way to see all of your to dos at once. You have to click into a specific calendar to see what is due. This can be helped a bit by putting due dates on everything and then viewing what is due today… but I don’t always remember to add a specific date and time especially for things like changing the air filter or vacuuming.

What is your favorite way to organize your to do list?