Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 16 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Endless To-Do List
— From: Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals by M. J. Ryan
I love Habit Changers: it’s a little book by M. J. Ryan that always seems to have the right answer for what I’m searching…
In this case, I was all worked up because, no matter what I do, work is never-ending. And Ryan has a very simple mantra for this that says, “Don’t worry, your to-do list is endless…” and she really means both the no worrying part as well as the endless to-do list!
Since I can imagine that most of us become overwhelmed at times with all that we have to do, I thought I’d share this quote from the book with you. It goes with my best wishes so that you can get rid of the anxiety that plagues us all when we have a crazy day (or several in a row) and our list seems interminable!
“This one’s for you if you are someone who stresses about trying to get everything done and/or feels anxious that your to-do list is too long, your email in-box too full. I promise you that no one gets to the end of the list or has an empty e-mail in-box–well, maybe for an hour or two, but if fills up again in a blink of an eye. We all have too much to do, and when you try to finish it all, you only put unnecessary pressure on yourself and cause yourself to work beyond the point of exhaustion. Doing the important work is hard enough–no need to add the extra pressure of presuming you should be superhuman. I’ve recommended this habit changer to dozens of people to help them stop beating themselves up over what is left undone.”
And this reminds me of an entry in Tim Urban’s blog Wait But Why that I read a while back. It’s called 100 Blocks a Day. The premise is very simple: between the time you are awake and the time you go to sleep you have approximately 100 “blocks” of 10 min each on a daily basis. How many blocks will you devote to each of your activities? Which tasks take up the bulk of your blocks? Is what you do during those blocks worth the time you spend doing it? What else should you do? What should you stop doing?
Lots of food for thought! How do you deal with your to-do list and with your blocks of time? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Do you have what seems like an endless to-do list? (Welcome to the club!) Here’s how I dealt with my overwhelm today: Remember that the list is there to serve you, not the other way around. Ask yourself these questions: How can you simplify your to-dos? What can you outsource, delegate, defer, or simply not do? Give some deep thought to each item on your to-do list today. Is everything in there absolutely necessary? Is there something that you can break down into a minimal component to make progress on that and continue tomorrow or next week?
FUTURE: I consider myself quite productive, yet sometimes I take on too much. When that is the case for you, consider putting some non-essential parts of your life on hold until you can return to them. For example, I’m working on several projects, and I also signed up for an online course. I was trying to do it all, but the truth is I can’t. So, I have given myself two weeks to finish the current projects, and then I will start again taking my online classes, otherwise, I’ll get overwhelmed with trying to do too much. Look at your to-do wants vs. your to-do needs and focus on the essential first. You can always return to the non-essential later.
Know someone who has an endless to-do list? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, thank you!