Do note by Paul Watson

This post is inspired by a twitter friend (there’s got to be a flashy Web 2.0 shorthand for that) who posted “To-do lists make me feel guilty – out out damn to-dos!!”

To do lists are evil

I hate to do lists. I either put too much on them and feel guilty about not getting it done. Or feel bad because it looks so small when I manage to put just a good day’s list of work down.

Whatever I do with them, they sit there and every time I see them they suck my energy.

My problem with to do lists

Having read around various productivity blogs and books I realised that the only way I would do a to do item was if it took like zero effort, however I would quickly get sick of breaking down every project into tiny, tiny steps – for I am lazy. What I needed was motivation, and since I love completing projects the one thing that really motivates me is the thought of finishing something.

An alternative to to-do lists

This actually came about from trying to keep track of all the different projects that I love to have on the go. I realised that I would start to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start, so I needed a quick way to record what I had going on and what needed doing. This managed to organically turn itself into something that actually helps me get things moving without hanging around and making me feel bad.

How to make my “it’s not a to do” list

• Take a sheet of paper, and make 3 columns, one small then two large.
• In the first column write the name of the project or worry or thought that you want to capture and get moving on.
• In the last column right what it will be like when that worry has been resolved/project completed/task done – the motivation bit
• In the middle column right something that will move you forward on this and feels like something you could do right now

The last part is the key part. I found that just writing these out made me feel clear-headed and less panicky and that I then started to want to get a few of these little jobs done, not because I ought to or because I had to but because I could see that they would move me closer to what I really wanted and so I wanted to do them.

Keeping it going

This is only useful if you can turn it into a system that you can follow over time, so here’s what I do to make it work for me.

• Keep the pages and pages of ‘friendly’ to do lists in a folder. I use a nice bright yellow one, it’s cheery from the get go
• Review it when you feel like getting something done. I only look at the folder when I’m looking for something constructive to get done, I hate the idea of doing something because I ought. If I’ve done some tasks since I last looked then I’ll cross them out, write new ones, and see which I feel like doing. Fortunately, with so many projects on the go, there’s usually at least one or two that I fancy having a play with.

So what do you think? Just another to do list, or something that you might find helpful? Please let me know in the comments below.

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Want to see more? Try one of these posts:

• Thoughts flitting through my head
• Lazy people are productive