Don't assign it if you won't do it

Your to-do list should be based in reality

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that you shouldn't assign yourself tasks that you
aren't actually going to do. It's better to be honest

(00:23):
about what you plan to get done, so you can
treat your to do list as a contract with yourself.
In years of talking about productivity, I know some people
take pride in having a lengthy to do list. There
are like a thousand items on it, ten thousand, or

(00:44):
it stretches for eight pages in a word document, or
it has long and nebulous items on it, like right book,
to which I say, that is not a to do list.
It might be a list of something, but it is
not a to do list. A to do list is
a list of things you actually intend to do in

(01:04):
a defined period of time. It could be a weekly
to do list or more commonly, a daily to do list.
But the key thing is that whatever length of time
you are choosing, the only things that should go on
this list are things you actually intend to do in
that time. In other words, don't assign yourself work if

(01:27):
you won't do it. There is no virtue in putting
something on a to do list and then not doing it,
it is just as not done as if you never
put it on the list in the first place, only
now you feel bad about it too, which is even
worse of an outcome. Ideally, a to do list is

(01:48):
a contract with yourself. When you put something on it,
you are telling yourself that you will in fact do it.
In the time your to do list covers, you develop
the discipline of knowing exactly what you can do and
doing whatever you say you will do. That way, you
can feel confident putting an item on a future to

(02:10):
do list knowing you will do it. Then you don't
feel panicked about assigning a thing that is due Friday
to Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because you know whatever you
assigned to Tuesday will happen Tuesday, and whatever you assigned
to Wednesday will happen Wednesday. Now. Of course, whenever I

(02:31):
say this, people point out the obvious, what if something
comes up, what if life happens, to which I say,
of course, things are going to come up. Life never
goes exactly as planned. Your to do list needs to
reflect things that you will do, even when the normal
emergencies happen. A kid is sick, the babysitter is late,

(02:55):
you get stuck behind an accident on the way to work,
a colleague's plane is delayedid you get a big last
minute request from a top client. While these things might
not all be normal, none of them are out of
the realm of possibility. You don't need to prepare for
things that are let's say, a one out of a
thousand chance or less. If a meteorite strikes your office building,

(03:20):
everyone will have bigger problems than that client proposal being late,
but they're being extra Traffic when it's raining isn't some
sort of crazy unknown. You want to be sure that
even if these normal, abnormal things happen, the items on
your to do list should be things you will get through.

(03:42):
The obvious conclusion from that is that the list needs
to be short. Clearly, if you'd need to pick up
a sick kit at one PM and the power would
go out in your house for eight hours, you would
not be able to get to a huge number of things.
Most people can only choose about three, maybe five major
things beyond the hard landscape of the day. But that

(04:05):
is okay because the act of creating a to do
list should be the act of choosing. When you create
a to do list, you are saying that these are
the things that are most important for me to do today.
These are the things that even if everything else goes wrong,
I want to complete the act of choosing forces prioritization,

(04:30):
and that is not a bad thing. If the sun
is shining and the world is good, and you get
through your to do list by ten am, by all
means go find some more things to do. I'm sure
you have a running list somewhere. That's that ten thousand
item lists that people are so proud of. But to
do means today. So don't assign yourself work if you

(04:54):
don't actually intend to do it. You will find yourself
much more productive if you are honest about this. In
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

(05:18):
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or

(05:41):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows,