To Do…Or Not To Do? That is the Question…

And No, I haven’t gone all ‘Thespian’ on you, I am actually referring to ‘lists’ and more acurately ‘To Do’ lists!

I’m starting to wonder if all the emphasis on writing lists for everything we should be doing is missing out a rather crucial point and something that I recently discovered for myself;

What About The Other List?

You know the one, the list of all the things that we shouldn’t be doing! I think that in many ways, this list can be more beneficial to you and will help you actually accomplish more in the long run.

We talked the other day about ‘inner voices‘ and I think it struck a chord with many of us because we all have those nagging doubts and demons telling us various things that we really don’t want to hear, most of it is deflating but within that confusion there is a little voice of reason.

This is the part of our sub-concious that’s trying to keep us on the straight and narrow and normally – it’s worth paying attention to when it tells us we’re ‘wasting valuable time surfing around the Internet, when we should be working’ or ‘You’ll regret that extra glass of wine in the morning’ – yes, the voice of reason is often tangled up with the voice of self doubt, so you need to drag it out and write the ‘List of Things Not to Do’.

Gaining Clarity

By writing down the ‘sensible’ things you know you ‘shouldn’t be doing’ you can determine what needs to be done far more efficiently. Let’s look at an example; I have to accomplish a ton of stuff today – I need to write two articles, build a blog on a sub-domain, spend an hour on Social Media and then there is the family commitments; Housework, ferrying children to and from nursery/school, seeing a friend for an hour & shopping.

The thing that will stop me accomplishing what’s on my list is distractions and procrastination, so rather than start my day writing yet another list of stuff I know I need to do I am going to write the following;

1. I’m not going to spend more than one hour for article writing
2. I won’t work past 10am on building the blog
3. I won’t have an extra coffee with my friend and worry about the consequences later
4. I won’t be distracted at the shops or buy anything that isn’t on my list
5. I won’t leave Twitter or Facebook open in another tab

So, you see what has happened here? I’ve shaken things up a little because it’s easy to get used to the same old programming, and lists, whilst useful, can become like white noise. We tend to think that because we have ‘written it’ on a list – it’s done!

It’s ok to have an extra coffee and spend 3 hours gossiping with your friends or to spend that critical time when the children are at school, wandering aimlessly around the shops being seduced by the new range at Per Una (it’s good, but not as good as it used to be).

It’s fine to spend 3 hours talking mindless rubbish on Twitter – it’s all fine because you wrote a To Do list.

WRONG!

It’s only fine when the list gets done and writing list after list isn’t going to accomplish anything – so shake it up a little. If you use the example above of the ‘Not to Do’ list, you will find that your brain embraces something new. When you friend says “Stay and have another coffee” you are far more likely to say “No thanks, I’ve got a ton of work to get done today”.

When you go shopping, your brain will be telling you to grab what you need and focus on getting back to utilize the time you have because rather than telling yourself what you need to do – you are now telling yourself what is ‘not allowed’.

I have been doing this recently to great effect, so I’d strongly advise you give it a go and see if it works for you too. It all came about when I gave myself a rather stern talking to a few weeks back and I did such a good job of laying down some ground rules, that my brain woke up with a sigh of relief that something fresh was there to get stuck into.

Have you done anything similar? Or can you see the potential of doing something like this? Let me know your thoughts on lists and any advice and tips you may like to share.

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