We always hear that having a to do list is essential to success and freedom. But, for me, having a daily to do list leads to great stress and anxiety. Often times I would fill out a to do list each day only to find that there are too many tasks to complete in one day. That is when I start to go down a rabbit hole and try to tackle everything at once, which leads me to getting stressed. But, I have found one adjustment that works really well and that is to create a weekly to do list. Weekly to do lists allow me the freedom to add as much tasks that need to get accomplished and spread those tasks across a week.
Additionally, I found that planning out my week and creating my weekly to do lists on Sunday night have helped me take more control of my known tasks so that I can fight the fires that I may encounter during the week (just know that fires will come and you must adjust). There are many times where I come into work and have to fight a fire that takes up an entire day or I have a change in my project scope or expectations that redirect my day. It is essential that there is built in time to adjust to the unknown tasks and that time is created by knocking down tasks on the weekly to lists.
A huge danger that I often fight is procrastination. It’s defined as the act of putting off or delaying something. All that is happening is you are allowing that task to control you. That task whether it is big or small is nagging at you at the back of your mind, which is no freedom at all and certainly doesn’t lead to success. Often times procrastination can lead to stress and anxiety which will wear you out from completing tasks on your to do list (I battle this all the time). I combat procrastination by listing my tasks on the weekly to do list and work to knock down the targets one by one. Now, I am not perfect and I don’t complete my weekly to do lists every week, but I ensure that the tasks that hadn’t been completed are the top priority for the following week. But, the biggest thing for me is to allow grace to rein in. If I had to deal with fires through the week that occupied me from completing tasks, I must allow myself room to breath and not beat myself up (yes, this is another struggle of mine). It’s important to ensure that grace does not lead to allowing yourself to lose focus, be lazy, or procrastinate (which this is so easy for me to fall into).
The key here is develop the discipline to knock down the targets on your to do list which again leads to success and freedom. Now lets get after it and create a weekly to do list TODAY!
