Gaining control of your tasks - Part 1 - Declaring to-do list bankruptcy
Hi!
In my effort to try to keep life simpler and prioritise the most important things, I have been working towards gaining control over all of the things I "need" to do, reducing them to as few as possible and learning not to stress over the unimportant ones. Over the new few posts I hope to share some of the ways I am planning to achieve this.
In doing this, it might be good to start from a clean slate. This brings me to sharing this concept of to-do list bankruptcy.
To-do lists tend to get too long over time
A few newsletters back I wrote about the Getting Things Done (GTD) system which I have been using to keep myself organised. I really like GTD's concept of capturing all tasks onto organised lists as it keeps tasks out of my head. This helps both to focus on the task at hand, and to avoid subconsciously thinking about work when resting.
Unfortunately, new inputs often get created faster than tasks can be resolved. When having worked in a job, project, or even managing a home for awhile, a very large list of actionable items builds up eventually - unimportant tasks that we never seem to have time to work on; items we were waiting for and never came back; ideas we never had a chance to implement. Looking at this long list can feel frustrating and stressful. Worse still, if not using any system to manage this list of tasks, keeping them in the head can be even more painful.
To-do list bankruptcy
Enter to-do list bankruptcy. If your list of possible tasks and next actions is starting to get overwhelming, it might be time to declare bankruptcy, delete the list, and start on a clean slate. This is especially so if thinking about what you have to do causes stress, and you end up simply keeping important tasks in your head.
The longer we stay in a job, the more legacy items start to pile up on our lists, and add to feeling burnt out. I think part of the hope that comes with changing jobs is the chance to escape that pile of items and responsibilities we end up accumulating, and have a new chance of getting control. Unfortunately, changing jobs so often is probably bad for building a career. To-do list bankruptcy is a better way of avoiding burn out.
I found this concept interesting because I had unknowingly declared bankruptcy when I went on paternity leave. By the time I came back from my break, it did not really make sense to keep any of the old tasks still on my list. A system change also required me to transfer my to-do list elsewhere, giving the perfect chance to simply start on a clean slate. As for those things that were on my to-do list, the world and the company had moved on even though they remained static.
Important things will reappear, unimportant things will not be missed.
Wiping your to-do list is not as scary as it seems. Initially there is a worry that - something is going to be missed and I am going to get in trouble later. However, most of the really important things would already have been done as soon as they appear, or remain at the top of the mind. Things important to others will somehow get resurfaced - let those who want most it take responsibility for remembering the task's existence. On the other hand, those remaining items filling the list? If they were not done by now, they were likely not important enough to be done at all.
We do not need to be perfect.
It is also fine if, once in awhile, some of these minor tasks slip through the cracks. To hold ourselves to a standard of perfection would be too tiring. I think we should strive to first be impactful rather than perfect. In a heavily connected world where new tasks pop up so easily, when people want something done, there is also some responsibility on them to make it easy for others to process this task, or risk it being lost.
There is no need to put this pressure on ourselves. We are not any less human if we do not get the best performance at work, if we get scolded by our bosses every once in awhile, or if our household is not run smoothly. What does matter is that we can do the things that are important to us.
What next?
Declaring bankruptcy is only the first step. We must take measures not to fall back into debt again. In the next newsletter I plan to share some of my thoughts on how I am keeping my to-do list under control, and filtering the tasks that come in.
Do tell me if you have an effective productivity system to share! I would love to hear about it and possibly feature it here.
Have a great week ahead!
James
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