Do you actually use any To-Do Lists?
I have a love/hate relationship with my To-Do Lists, so I have started reading a short book by Damon Zahariades: To-Do List Formula. I had not gotten too far into the book when I realized he could teach me a few things about these lists, so I thought I would share some of his ideas with you. These ideas may help you learn to love your To-Do lists. I may discuss this later after I finish the book.
Do you struggle with time management and getting your tasks done because you keep agreeing to work on other people’s tasks?
Are you the person everyone thinks of when a new task needs to be completed? I know you “sorta” like that reputation, but that does put more tasks on your T0-Do list.
Do you believe you are not in a position to refuse to do someone else’s work when they ask you to do something?
Are you uncomfortable discussing your workload with your boss when he or she assigns you yet another task? Sometimes, if you want to be successful, you need to address this and learn to be uncomfortable.
Life – or death, in some cases – happens
A few years ago, my brother died. He lived with me and I was the one who found him on the floor. That rearranged my life a bit. He lived with me, but the state in which we were living said I was not his next of kin. [I can only imagine what our mother would have said to that!]
I had to contact his daughters, who live in a different state, who had to get a form from the funeral home, sign it, get it notarized and then return it so I could take care of the final arrangements.
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That was done and I finally got the death certificate. His cause of death? “Miscellaneous illnesses of the elderly”. I do not know about you, but that seems like a cop-out to me. I have to wonder if the doctor did more than look at my brother. To be honest, I am not even sure he actually saw my brother.
You see, my brother’s primary doctor moved on to work in a hospital. He got a new doctor but had never actually seen him. This new doctor would not have recognized my brother alive or dead. I think he signed the death certificate because that was the easiest thing to do.
In one sense, I do not blame the doctor, given the circumstances. On the other hand, I do wish I knew what caused my brother’s death. That I will now never know.
Anyway, I will have to learn what I need to do about probate now. I am not really looking forward to that.
Needless to say, I thought about this blog, but other thoughts intervened.
This brings me back to the To-Do List.
To-Do Lists – Do you hate them or love them?
Zahariades (2016) discusses several types of To-Do Lists. The one that screamed at me was the one he called “The Massive All-Inclusive List”. This list is, essentially, a brain dump.
Duh. No surprise there, right? We take a piece of paper, or something electronic, and enter everything that we need to do.
I may be older than most of my readers. I do have two master’s degrees; I am a teacher, but I write these “brain dumps” just the way a lot of other people do. With To-Do Lists, I am probably no different than you.
Once I read the title and brief explanation, I had an “A-Ha”.
There is no way, absolutely none, that I will get all of those tasks done on any given day. Yet, in some strange hallucination, I had this belief that if I wrote it down, I would get it done.
A reason To-Do lists do not work – This may be why you hate To-Do lists!
I will guess you have heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. By this definition, I am certifiably insane. I know I was feeling overwhelmed. I should have considered my own words.
There are at least three different To-Do Lists, all within arm’s reach, that I have written over the course of a month. Many of the items are the same. Many are not.
Are you with me on this?
One interesting detail that Zahariades mentioned was that “41% of items are never completed”.
That is a chunk of anyone’s To-Do List. No wonder we feel somehow inadequate when we do not get to cross those items off our list.
His solution? Make a list of those items that absolutely, positively MUST be done. Do not include such things as “clean out the sock drawer”. The To-Do list should have items such as “Pay the Rent/Mortgage” or “Get the oil changed before the car’s engine dies”.
You know what I mean: itemize those items.
The sock drawer can wait. It is not going to bite you. Not paying the rent/mortgage will.
One simple solution to improve your To-Do List – Learn to love, or at least like, your To-Do Lists
Think about it. Think about your reaction at the end of a day when you are looking at the brain-dump list, realizing you only completed a few of the items.
Now, think about how you would feel at the end of the day if you reviewed your list and realize you had completed all of the items you had to complete.
There are a lot of things we want to do. Getting those things done that we need to do is more important than doing what we want to do.
Try a different To-Do list for a week. Does this work better? Do you feel more accomplished? Maybe you did not learn to love your To-Do list, but did you at least like it? Let me know what you think.
If you found this helpful, please share it with someone you think would also find it useful. I would appreciate it. Your friend might appreciate it too.
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If you have any questions or comments, please leave me a note.
Valerie
Zahariades, D. (2016). To-do list formula, Columbia, SC.; Art of Productivity
updated 9 July 2022