Defeating Never-Ending To Do Lists with a Permanent Marker

marker

Let’s pretend for a moment that our to do lists were infinitely long. What if, no matter how many items we checked off, we would still have an infinite number of things to do?  What would we do? Would we hide in a corner? Write an angry letter to the mayor? Kick something?

No. None of that would be necessary.

You see, our to do lists are infinite. And all we need to manage our infinitely long lists are a permanent marker and a blank piece of paper.

With the marker, write the word “NOT” in front of the title of your to do list. Make a new list on the blank page. Title this list “To Do Next.” Select from your old to do list the one or few things that would feel the best to get done next. Do these, cross them off, then go back to the infinitely long list and pick again.

See?

 

In your corner,

Mike

PS: Of course, don’t use a permanent marker if you track your tasks on your phone.

PPS: I call this sanity-making task-management approach The Barebone Edition.

 
Today’s photo credit: Nick Harris cc

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