3 Unusual Steps to Reclaim your To-do List, Now

A few simple tests that you can do in your head

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My to-do items are like my bookshelf – I take one off once I’m done with it, but then I add another two. The list just keeps growing.

It’s great for my bookshelf because I love reading.

But I don’t enjoy having a to-do list that never ends. Some items have been on the list since before having kids!

So, I’ve decided to do something controversial and just start deleting.

For no reason other than, if I haven’t done them yet, then they can’t have been that important in the first place. And if they were essential, then I would have figured out how to get them done by now.

Now granted I did have a baby a few months ago, so I kinda have an excuse to not have done many of them yet. And sure, just because they haven’t been important enough to date, doesn’t mean they won’t be important in the very near future.

But I wasn’t factoring in one big point.

I’m a different person today than I was 15 months ago, when baby Blueberry (not her real name) came along. Heck, I’m a different person today to who I was last month.

Why would I expect my ‘not done’ to-do’s to be relevant to this new me?

We change and grow every day, as the sum of our life experiences moulds us into a newer version of ourselves.

That means the you of next week will look very different to the you of today. And this means that there will be different connections and assumptions in place, that will change the idea and notion of that particular to-do list item.

The way that, that task is perceived and what it means to us, will be different as long as we keep up with our own personal expansion.

So, what principles can we align ourselves to, so that we can tame that ever growing to-do list snake? 

I run 3 tests in my head to decide how to cull the to-do list load:

1. The length of service test.

   If they’ve been on your list for longer than 2 months and you haven’t done them yet, remove them. They will always find their way back if need be. And next time they appear on the list they will have probably been refined and look slightly different.

2. The ‘who is this for?’ test.

   If it’s for you, it’s much easier to determine if it still needs to be on the list. If it’s not and it’s for other people, then it’s worth challenging whether or not someone else’s actions need to be on your list in the first place. If they don’t, remove them.

3. The regularity test.

   If you have regular items on your list, like creating a report every week. Run an experiment and stop doing it for one week. Did anyone notice? Do the same again for the next week, did anyone notice? If nobody notices over the next two weeks, stop for good. You’ll soon know if someone is really missing it.

That’s how I remove the to-do list duds, it might not work for everyone or everything, but it works for me and it makes the process fun!

What do you think? Will you give any of them a go?

-Selda

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