Where's Your 'Not-To-Do' List?

In our current mad-dash world, we are bombarded with tasks, engagements, opportunities and other demands on our time. So we are encouraged to write 'To-Do' lists to capture all of these demands.

There is something quite cathartic about being able to jot down a list of bullet points in a journal; setting out all of the tasks that you need to undertake, plans for the future and other opportunities and ideas for the future. Heck, there are even websites dedicated to the joys of writing bullet-points in journals:

But herein lies a problem:

When everything becomes important, nothing is important.

As much of a thrill that you may feel when crossing out all of those completed tasks from your to-do list (can you feel that endorphin rush?), you are actually just being a busy fool.

The key to success is to identify those tasks, engagements, ideas and opportunities that will take you closer to your goals. The rest is just fluff. Time-wasting.

This requires a complete reversal in your thinking. Rather than striving to be a super-hero for ticking off the most tasks, you need to become a discerning (some might say 'stubborn') judge of what tasks you should complete and those that you should not complete.

If you are applying this principle correctly, your list of 'to-do's' should be much shorter than your list of 'not to-do's'. Put another way, you now have a very long list of tasks, engagements, ideas and opportunities that you will NOT carry out as they will not have made it on to your (very limited) To-Do list.

Sure, these tasks, engagements etc that no longer make it onto your 'To-Do' list might still need to be done (others will be complete fluff) but not by you. Delegation and automation should take care of these.

The key is to ensure that you are focused on dealing only with those activities that are within your sweet-spot and that take you closer to your goals. There is nothing more refreshing than experiencing a conversation with someone who is completely focused and says 'no' 99 times more than 'yes'. You just know that they are going to get to where they want to go.

Whereas the rest just keep ticking through their long list of 'to-do's' feeling inward progress (even though their external world might be far from it).