The To Do List for the motivated individual can be a lifesaver. All of the ideas, plans and goals racing through the motivated person’s mind need somewhere to be recorded, organized and prioritized. Therefore, so many people (myself included) survive each day through a constant series of amended and readjusted To Do Lists. Yes, people who love to get things done so often love their To Do Lists because they help us prevent anything from falling through the cracks and when we are feeling energized we can just look at our To Do List and get to work. In an ideal scenario, the To Do List, to the motivated individual, is something like the music score is to the symphony conductor. Yes, in a perfect world, a motivated person’s To Do List can resound like sweet music as each completed item crossed off the list is like a note successfully “played” by the Orchestra of Achievement.
However, as
we all know, we don’t live in a perfect world. What always ends up happening is
that “sour notes” end up showing up on our list. In addition to the things we
desire to do in order to satisfy our goals this world hands us a host of not so
desirable things to do. For example unfun things like “Get laptop fixed” or “Complete
20 page application for so and so" may make their way to the top of our list before
we can work on what we really want to do first. Also, motivated people sometimes can suffer
from the self-inflicted syndrome of “Motivation Gone Wild” which involves overzealously
adding item after item to our To Do List to the point of completely overwhelming
oneself into a state of utter frustration. In the “Motivation Gone Wild”
scenario, our To Do List may still be full with stuff we truly desire to
accomplish, however the sheer volume of the To Do list makes it unmanageable. At
times either of these scenarios can transform our personal To Do List from a
pleasant tool of motivation, organization and prioritization into an instrument
of torture inescapably leering over our heads.
We will
always have good days and bad days for sure. But if for an extended period,
your To Do List has become for you an instrument of torture, then it is time to
bring some of these commonly known but oft- forgotten items back to the top of
our list:
Ø Delegate – What items on our monstrous To Do
List can we put off onto another person’s To Do List? Ask yourself, have I been
forgetting to ASK OTHERS FOR HELP?
Ø Simplify and Let Go – Has our To Do List gotten out of
our control because we are our own worst enemy by complicating things? Ask
yourself: “What can I simply cross off this list because it is just too much
for me right now?”
Ø Self-Care – Take a nap, take a walk, take a
vacation, take a break; take whatever you need to do in order to get away from
the dreaded To Do List black cloud that you have allowed to darken your day.
The sun will still come out tomorrow.
Ø Recheck Your Values – Being in a neurotic state of “Motivation
Gone Wild” can steer a person away from the more important things in life like
our beliefs, our health, family, and even our happiness if we allow ourselves
to lose control. Ask yourself: Am I letting my daily To Do List overshadow the “big
picture” in life?
Those are
just a few brief thoughts to try to alleviate “Motivation Gone Wild” and eradicate
To Do Lists of Torture, and there are many more that you can probably list for
yourself (especially since you likely are already an expert on lists!). What
matters most is that you get back to managing your To Do List, as opposed to
allowing It to manage you.
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