If you're into fishing, you know how important a treble hook can be to bringing in the big one. The concept is simple: instead of one hook, there are three. If one hook doesn't gaff the prize, another one will.
That's in fishing. But in your daily to-do list, there's another kind of treble hook, and it isn't helpful. Here's how this kind works: you list everything that needs to get done today (or maybe this week) and you set out to diligently cross off every item in the hours/days to come. Invariably, though, something doesn't get done--or perhaps more than one thing loiters on the list beyond your allotted timeframe.
So you do what any productive person does, you re-write that item on the next list. Before long, time comes to refresh your list, and you're forced to acknowledge once again that the item(s) hasn't been accomplished. Onto the next list it goes, and so on.
You're now gaffed three ways:
1. Facing the fact that you're continually not getting that thing done is demoralizing, and that's counterproductive to the whole enterprise of keeping a to-do list in the first place. You're not writing it to depress yourself, you're writing it to get things accomplished.
2. Seeing that item pop up over and over again is incredibly frustrating. You're really not even sure why it's not getting done. Yet, there it is...again...and again. The frustration consumes more and more of your mind space, which is the polar opposite of what you were trying to accomplish with a list all along (get things done to open up mind space, right?).
3. Finally, as a consequence of the first two hooks, you question your whole system of getting things done. If one or more things never get done, and you're demoralized and frustrated all the time because your list is mirroring back to you your ineffectiveness, it seems nothing short of masochistic to keep writing the list. Why do you need to keep a running log of proof that you suck at life?
Fortunately, it's that third hook that can get you off all the hooks, and the solution has nothing to do with admitting you're a failure. Instead, it's refreshingly painless and simple: remove the words "daily" or "weekly" from your list. In fact, go all the way and remove "to-do" from it, too. Try instead a one word title: "Action". And erase from your mind self-imposed daily or weekly parameters for getting everything on the list done--unless an item truly must be accomplished in that timeframe. If it does, elevate it to the top and jot a date next to it. That's a way of reminding yourself that you haven't masochistically imposed a timeframe on the item; there's a tangible, external reason to get it done, so do it.
For all of those items that are not as urgent, look at each one and make sure you have it broken down into manageable pieces, each of which is probably its own action item. For example, I'm presently writing a book. If I had an item on my list that said, "Write your book," I'd just be duping myself. That's not an item; it's a three-ton, multi-headed hydra of a project. Maybe, "Write the first half of Chapter 5" would be a workable action item, but that could probably be broken down as well.
Finally, when you've broken down the items into workable pieces, write them all down and keep them on one list until you've knocked them off. I refresh my action list either when I've accomplished everything on it, or if I need more space. I personally go through a list every two or three weeks.
That's it. You're off the treble hook. The self-punishment can end and you can get back to the reason you started "to-doing" in the first place.
Copyright 2010 - David DiSalvo
