(1 min read)
To-do lists are crucial to getting things, done, particularly new things that we aren’t used to having in our brains. Those that use to-do lists know how it good it feels to make that cross-out or check that box. I’m one of them.
I made a daily to-do list for my mornings to remind me to do a series of things before I even sit down at the keyboard and then a few more things by the end of the workday. I require myself to have 8 out of 8 X’s on the dry erase board by 3:30 pm (that’s the end of my workday). That’s all there is to it. So easy and so effective.
So good.
But there’s something even better than crossing off these to-do’s… one final luscious to-do that tells me I’m really making progress.
And that’s eliminating the daily to-do list completely.
At first, the daily Xs were energizing. I’m doing it! I’m getting there! But after a while, those X’s became boring. They weren’t doing anything for me anymore, not like they used to anyway. There was no pride in them. it was just a motion I was going through.
That’s when I knew I’d really succeeded.
Those 8 things became so ingrained in me, they became a part of me. I just do them. No big deal.
And when I miss one on an off day, it’s not a catastrophe – there is no need to kick myself or build another list.
I don’t need a list.
I do it for me now.