The to do list can be an excellent tool to keep focused but it also has the potential to create extra baggage we don’t need.
I teach this stuff, but keeping up and keeping on track is as much a struggle for me as anyone. Like many people I use a daily to do list (or task list) to keep focused on my important items of the day. But over time what should be a simple list of things to get done, begins to take on an emotional tone. These emotions usually include guilt in one form or another.
That’s because my task list begins to morph into a “Have To Do List”, “Must Do List” or worst of all “Should Do List.” All of these carry the extra baggage of emotion. After all, if I don’t do something on the list then I’m being irresponsible, lazy or just bad. When this happens I begin to hear my mother’s voice.
This happens to a lot of people because we always have more to do than we can possibly finish. Because we have so much to do, we begin to pile them onto our daily task lists knowing full well we won’t do them. The list begins to grow as does our guilt and other unhelpful emotions.
Make Your To Do List a “Will Do List”
To keep things in perspective maybe we should change the term for our daily list of things to do. UK based time management trainer, Mark Forster, in his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
This simple change in terminology changes the entire game. By thinking of my daily activity list as a listing of what I will do I automatically put limits on how much to take on. Understanding and embracing those limits frees us to be more selective in what we do.
When you commit to yourself (or somebody else) that you will do something that day, you give more consideration to how much time it will take and how much you have available. Most of us don’t normally commit to things we won’t or can’t do. So you naturally limit the list to things you can really finish.
It helps remove the guilt because you replace the ambiguous “should” with a concrete “will.” Try it.
Some Guidelines for Your Must Do List
If you try the will do concept, keep these in mind:
- Make all of your items a clear physical action.
- Make sure each action something you can complete within a day. If it takes longer, then your next action should be to plan the project so that you can break it into a series of smaller steps that can be finished in a day.
- Look at each item on your list as a commitment because they carry more weight (and less guilt) than a “should”.
- Do not add anything to the list during the day. If you finish the list before the end of the day, that’s great. I’ll bet you have plenty of other things to do.
- In Outlook use the Task Timeline to view your task list over a period of days to help balance your workload.
Still Haunted By Guilt?
If after changing to a will do list you are still nagged by guilt (the gift that keeps on giving) try starting a “Did Do” list at the end of each day. While it’s still fresh in your mind make a quick list of what you actually accomplished. It’s probably more than you think. And if you didn’t get much accomplished you will have a clear picture of what’s getting in your way.
For more information about the Will Do List concept see Mark Forster’s excellent book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Photo by Chris de Rham
{ 1 trackback }