Get it out of your head

A listener shares the list-making strategy that helps her feel less busy while getting more done

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to get it out of your head.
That is, write down anything you're not going to do
right this minute. In a previous episode, I talked about

(00:24):
keeping your to do list short. The reason to do
this is that there's no point putting something on a
to do list and then not doing it. It's just
as undone as if you'd never put it on the
list in the first place, only now you feel bad too.
Better to have expectations meet reality. The only way to
guarantee that happens is to keep your list short. I

(00:48):
mentioned that a lot of people really resist this idea.
That's because we're responsible for more than three to five
things in the universe. So what do you do with
the rest of this stuff? How do you keep it
from clogging up your brain? How do you make sure
you'll remember it in the future. Well, As Before Breakfast
listener Holly put it in an email to me, you
get it out of your head. Holly wrote in her

(01:11):
note that while she was going through some very stressful
times in her personal life, she began writing down various
images and memories that came to her, so she'd have
them somewhere but wouldn't have to dwell on them. She
later realized that this process was useful for things beyond
her ruminations. It was a good idea for managing to
do lists in general. So now I have a small

(01:31):
notebook and each page has a subject line, she writes,
And on that page, I create a list of things
I need to remember, things that I need to do,
and things I want to do. This takes them out
of my head and into a place I can look
over several times a day to see what I can
take off. That is, when she finds herself with some
extra time. She noted that these lists also hold her

(01:53):
accountable for steps toward bigger projects. It shows progress, it
shows achievements, and it shows olls. She says, So what
kind of pages does Holly have in her notebook? She
sent me a partial list with all of them. She
has pages for tracking holidays taken at work, notes for
her lawyer, notes for her doctor, notes about money, general category. Here,

(02:16):
she says, I put things I need to do but
haven't gotten around to, such as getting the cat micro chipped,
meeting up with so and so, etcetera. She has a
page for her podcast, a page devoted to holiday destinations,
page devoted to therapy that might encompass, things to cover
in sessions or exercises she needs to do, shopping lists, makeup.
She says, I keep a list of the shades and
brands I love so I don't forget, a destination, bucket list,

(02:39):
a list for her car which includes general info and
renewal dates things like that, a Christmas gift idealist, a
dream journal, birthday list, social appointments, etcetera. Holly writes that
this may seem like a lot, but each time I
need to make room in my head or life, or
I'm worried I'll forget a date or a piece of information,
I just flipped to that page and note down. It

(03:01):
has given me back control and allowed me to stop procrastinating.
What Holly discovered is that just because we're not going
to do something right now doesn't mean we don't want
to know about it or think about it in the future. So,
for instance, I just made a list in my planner
that I'm calling this summer fun list. These are things
I want to do over the summer that makes summer
feel like summer to me. I put things like eating

(03:23):
ice cream at days in Ocean Grove on the New
Jersey Shore, going to a Phillies game, going to a
beer garden, and listening to music outdoors. None of these
things are on my to do list for tomorrow or
even for the next week. But as I'm going into
summer weekends and thinking about what I might like to do,
I'll have this list to look back on. I also
have an ongoing list of home projects that we should

(03:44):
probably do at some point. If I put clean out
the closet on my to do list for this weekend, well,
it probably wouldn't get done because it's a full weekend,
and then I'd feel bad. But at least now it's somewhere,
and what I do feel like I have some time
and want to tackle a project, I know which ones
have identified as being worth doing. I'd also definitely recommend
keeping a t BR list that stands for to be read.

(04:09):
Anytime you hear a good book recommendation, don't assume you'll
remember it. You won't remember it. Put it on the
t BR list. Then when you find yourself stuck with
a weight, somewhere you can look at the list, order
the e book on your phone and start reading it
in your e reading app. Our brains can do all
sorts of amazing things, but remembering stuff we need to

(04:30):
do in the future is not really one of those things.
Or worse, we'll remember the thing at a time when
we can do nothing about it. I really should call
my accountant about that. Tax issue. Is just not a
helpful thing to wake up and pull over at three am,
So get it out of your head. Then your head
will have room for all sorts of other amazing ideas.

(04:51):
I'd love to hear about the lists you make. Do
you make a lot of them, like Holly, or just
a few? Do you keep them in a notebook or
an app or somewhere online. You can email me with
your ideas at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(05:19):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
podcast at iHeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is

(05:41):
spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H