Lists are where tasks go to die
This may be a controversial take as I know that many people are committed list-makers and have to write down, see, and check off their tasks to feel productive. This is especially true in software development, where great effort is put into maintaining a backlog of tickets, ready to be picked up by an engineer. But I’m going to say it anyway…
Lists are where tasks go to die.
Humour me for a moment. You set out on a mission to change your life and become more organised, and start recording your daily chores and work items in your favourite task management app. “Boom!”, you think. But when it comes to actually carrying them out, for some reason you just can’t stick to the schedule. This is normal and is aligned with human nature, but it comes to many as a surprise. Why does this happen?
The reason is quite simple. By compiling your tasks into a list, you are creating emotional and temporal distance between yourself and the work that needs to be carried out. You’re saying to yourself, “I can’t do this now, but I will do it later”. But later never comes.
I say that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing now. Picking up on cues around you and acting on them is a sure-fire way to feel better about your productivity. Notice that something needs to change, change it, and enjoy the feeling of reward afterwards. This leaves little room for procrastination, or feelings of guilt and failure.
But how do you juggle multiple tasks with different priorities? Well, you first need to understand what your priorities are. Once you understand your priorities, everything else should fall into place. You can only do one thing at a time properly, so you should only do one thing at a time, and it should be the thing that is needed most in that moment, whether that’s making your bed in the morning, tidying up your kitchen after cooking, or blocking out some time to complete your work.
By paying attention to the present moment and the cues of the environment we are in, we don’t just feel more productive, we become more productive.
There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.
— Thich Nhat Hanh