It’s A Love/Hate Relationship with Lists.
He’s making a list, checking it twice, gotta find out who’s naughty or nice, Santa Claus is coming to town!!!
I’ve been hearing that song a bit recently.
Completely unrelated, but utilising a single word from the song, today I want to talk about lists!!
Not naughty or nice lists, but to-do lists.
Do you utilise them in your life? Have you ever utilised them and now don’t? I’m always curious to know an individuals relationship with ‘the list’. Oooh the dreaded list.
My gorgeous partner is obsessed with them. He has lists for every single part of his life. It’s actually impressive how well he tracks all the elements that make up his world, considering how busy he is.
You see, I wasn’t a list person.
Ever.
I’ve tried. I knew plenty of people who were and they succeeded with them. The lists worked for them and I was always so impressed with their list utilising prowess.
There’s so much incredible research to back up the benefits of creating a to-do list. Not only is it important to keep track of the work you need to complete, but it’s actually also beneficial for your mindset in being able to tick things off the list and reflect on how much you have achieved too.
That was the element for me, in the past I was ‘listing’ in the wrong way. At first I was writing it down on a piece of paper each day, and I found that I was just rewriting the list everyday. Of course things were being ticked off, but it also felt like so many things were constantly dragging on - it didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. After this I trialled the use of apps and programs that ticked the item off your to-do list and made it disappear. In theory that is great, you can visually see your list getting smaller, but when you’re adding as often as you’re subtracting, the list doesn’t get any smaller and your progress report is no longer visible. I wasn’t seeing everything I’d achieved being ticked off, only what was still left to do. Which always felt like a lot.
So I gave up. I decided lists were for me. I was not a fan of ‘the list’.
Then I heard this amazing podcast about the energetic weight of adding things to your to-do list. AND IT RESONATED!
The podcast, which was Big Conversations by Haley Hoffman Smith, spoke to the idea that when we put things on our to-do list we’re actually creating more energetic weight for that task, than doing it right away.
Think about it this way…
You have something you need to complete, for example you get asked to put together a presentation for work, and you add it to your to-do list. When you get asked to complete the task you unconsciously consider to yourself how ‘difficult’ the task will be. This is what I refer to as energetic weight. Let’s say this presentation was 4 stars worth of difficulty. 4 stars heavy. All of this is going on unconsciously remember.
The next day comes around and you still haven’t got to the project yet, those 4 stars are starting to feel a bit heavier. The energy of not completing the task yet has added an extra 0.5 of a star. Then your boss asks you a question about it, and because you haven’t started it yet, the task suddenly feels a bit harder, not only is it still to be done, but your boss is asking questions. That’s an extra 1 or 1.5 stars.
Suddenly, what was a 4 star weight class is now sitting at close to 6 stars. That takes up space in your mind.
Because you haven’t started it yet, but you’re constantly thinking about it, the weight is actually heavier than first anticipated, because it’s not only taking up space on your to do list, it’s taking up space from the other tasks you’re currently doing, because you’re thinking about the presentation when you’re supposed to be doing the other tasks.
See how a to-do list can be energetically exhausting.
Instead, if we complete the task right away, we don’t add the extra weight of the thinking, or of the questions. You also get the added benefit of being able to evolve and improve on the presentation. The longer you leave it, the less time you have for refining the finished product. It’s a win win for doing the project right away.
I used my learning from that podcast to shun away from to-do lists for a while.
I pretended like I was better than them and that everyone who had to-do lists was carrying around so much weight in their mind focussing on all the tasks that needed doing. That podcast gave me an escape exit to confidently be a list hater. I loved that I could use this knowledge to justify to myself why I didn’t write lists.
Let’s be real though.
It’s not always possible to do things right away, exactly when the project presents itself.
We have other commitments and projects that need doing.
It’s also not productive to try and remember everything you need to do without writing things down. That takes up a huge share of mind in itself.
So I’ve developed a list protocol that works for me now, and it goes like this…
I have 3 lists:
Ideas go on their own list - if I have a burst of inspiration for something, it gets added to a special list
The daily to do list gets written each day, and things are not allowed to be carried over, if it was important enough, it would have been completed the day before.
Major projects only get put on a list if its genuinely not possible to complete them ASAP.
The system has served me well.
I get a place to store my ideas. My inspiration. The things that get me excited. This becomes a place to remind me of what I want to create and how I want to build my business.
I get the benefit and dopamine hit off ticking things off my daily to-do list, without the energetic weight of constantly carrying things over. It really is true that if it was important enough you would have already done it. Stay back late to ensure it gets done. Carrying things over is only a burden to yourself.
Finally, the major tasks get started AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! This is really important. Major projects carry a lot of energy, so when we put them off they really do become bigger than Ben Hur. Making a concerted effort to get onto them as soon as actively possible helps you and helps the project.
It allows you space to create what needs creating, without all the added stress of getting it right straight away because you’ve left it so late. It also increases your productivity, and saves your to-do list becoming a mountain.
It’s worth mentioning, that I whole-heartedly still agree with everything I learnt on that podcast, I simply needed to find a way to make it work in my life and with my daily routines.
If you’ve found this interesting, and want to read more about how I put my life together, then reach out and share some suggestions on what you’d like to learn.
Sending love,
Jade xx
