When I choose the vaguer to-do list, the advantage is that I have more options. If my goal is “schedule a meeting with Bob”, I could accomplish this by emailing Bob, calling Bob on the phone, going to visit Bob at work…I don’t have to decide right away, but I get to cross it off no matter which one I choose. I usually make a new to-do list each morning, to start the day, so I haven’t finalized all my plans for that day yet…sometimes it’s nice to have some flexibility in how I accomplish my goals and build that in to my planning. If I decide first thing in the morning that I’m going to email Bob, I might prioritize being at the computer over going out because I might have also decided that several other of my goals required me to be at the computer. Whereas, if I know I intend to schedule that meeting with Bob, and I’m now heading out to accomplish some other goal like “get food” (which I had also not yet decided necessarily which grocery store to go to), I might look at my list and think “Oh, I need to get food AND schedule a meeting with Bob…and Bob happens to live a block away from that health food store I’ve been meaning to check out, I can accomplish both those things on the same trip!” instead of feeling tied to “email Bob” and “pick up Cheerios at K-Mart”.

Other days, I do function better with the more specific to-do list, for the reasons you mentioned. :)

I have a really weird relationship with my to-do lists, though. I’ve got a very complex system for how I use them that I should probably explain to people some day because it works EXTREMELY WELL for me. Like, I literally went from being the person others would describe as “the most disorganized person I know” to being “the most organized person I know”, pretty much just from the evolution of my really awesome system for to-do lists.