It’s the beginning of the year, and it feels like a fresh day with nothing but possibilities. If you’re anything like me, you have a mind full of potential and a long to-do list of things you want to get done. When I first started setting year-long goals and the to-do lists associated with them, I used to make a mistake that, at least for the first couple of years, caused me to crash and burn on all the things I wanted to accomplish. What was my mistake? Firstly, I made the mistake of thinking I could accomplish everything I wanted to achieve on all my goals by the end of March, without taking into account that I had a job, a family, and a life, all of which require time to manage. The second thing I did was treat the date I had arbitrarily set for when I wanted to get something done as set in stone. The first mistake I occasionally still make is when my ambition gets the better of me. The second, with little exception, is no longer an issue for me.
1) Everything has time constraints – Whether it’s a job, going out on dates, or reading a good book, everything takes time out of your day. It’s not a problem, it’s just a fact. In today’s world, where nearly every minute of your day can be taken up by something, it’s never been more crucial to establish a way to keep your priorities in order. If I didn’t have a to-do list, I wouldn’t have a way of knowing what I wanted to get done in a day. Heck, I use my to-do list to remind myself to pay my bills. I would have a hard time managing what needs to be paid if I didn’t write it all down. However, because I do write it all down, when it’s off my to-do list, I know that it’s done.
2) When my priorities shift, so do my to-do lists – I refer you back to making my big plans at the beginning of the year. What’s the phrase? God laughs when men make plans? Something that happens to me regularly is that I make big plans for the year, and about 50% of them don’t come to fruition. Not necessarily because I fail at whatever it is that I’m planning to do, but mostly because things happen throughout the year, and my priorities, which were one way at the beginning of the year, change as the year progresses. Perhaps it’s a change of pace. Perhaps after planning a big project, I decide that I’m not interested in doing it, or I don’t have the time. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that if your priorities change, you need to adjust your to-do list accordingly. If your to-do list is supposed to help keep you organized, keeping tasks on it for a goal you’ve abandoned is a great way to psych yourself out and feel guilty about the things you’re not doing (at least it was for me). Shifting around what’s on your to-do list is a practical exercise which makes you laser-focused on your goals.
3) If there’s no time today, there’s time tomorrow – Now that we have you laser-focused on your goals, let’s talk about the rest of the world around you. There are days when I can complete everything on my to-do list, and there are days when my workload overwhelms me, or I have chores around the house that need attention, or people need my help with this and that. For 90% of my to-do list, if I don’t complete a task on the specific day, I can adjust the due date to the following day, when things will hopefully be less busy, and complete it then. What I love about my to-do list is that it is adjustable, it’s amendable, and the tasks on it (if need be) are movable.
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started making to-do lists was thinking that dates were set in stone. I used to take a lot of pride in completing my tasks, but also a lot of shame on myself when I had to put something off because I wasn’t able to get it done within the time I had given myself. It has been a hard learned lesson, but goals change, priorities shift, and life gets in the way of what you want to do. This is not the end of the world. What matters about your goals is setting yourself enough time (Allowing for life, etc.) to get everything done, but also allowing yourself the mental space so that if you can’t get task X done on day Y, then you can (usually) move the task to the following day, and get on with your life. To-do lists are not constraining; they free up your mental space to live your life more fully. You have to remember to stay on top of your list so that you know what to do day by day.
How do you work with your to-do list?
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