Why to do lists don't always work

Welcome to today's issue of The Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine. The e-zine of Motivateme: Breaking the Procrastination Habit. http://www.motivateme.info. We would like to thank you in advance for forwarding this issue onto family, friends and any other interested readers.  Please note all back issues of this newsletter are available from - http://www.motivateme.info/ezine-archive/
 
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I’m sure you have at least one “to do list” sitting on your desk right now. If you are anything like your neighbours and colleagues, you probably have several lists – one for work, one for home, one in your briefcase just in case you forget where you put the other lists you created last week, and a list of things you need to do “when you get the time”. The thing is, lists are easy to create, they are also easy to lose, easy to overlook, and easy to forget about when other more urgent items get dropped on your already over flowing desk.

So why do we spend a lot of time creating something that very rarely works? Well there are a lot of reasons, not least of which – having a list means that we can create structure and form out of the chaos that is our desks. We know what we need to do, and we know when we need to have it done by. The problem with most lists, is that there is always something far more exciting to do further down the list rather than the item that sits at number one – which is now important and urgent by the way. We reason that in order to get into the right frame of mind needed to tackle the item that is at number one spot, we’ll do one of the other items on our to do list, and then we will get around to the number one item.  Except of course, we very rarely do, until someone, somewhere (usually the boss) asks where the item is. All of a sudden, the important and urgent item becomes important, urgent and overdue. We work late into the afternoon and evening to produce whatever it is that we need to produce. People (especially the boss) can see us working feverishly away, and reason that we must be very busy, because we are always working so hard.

And because you were able to produce something (OK it wasn’t up to your best standard, but hey you simply ran out of time), this reinforces your belief that you work best under pressure, so instead of starting right away on the next item on the list, you take time out to congratulate yourself on a job well done, perhaps taking time to read the paper, make a cup of coffee, talk to people about how busy you are and so the cycle starts again.

Believe it or not, this is a form of structured procrastination. We put off doing something we ought to do, usually by doing something else simply because we can. And because you are still producing something, you can create the illusion that you are busy and productive, when in reality all you are is busy. You may deceive yourself into thinking that your working day has structure and purpose, you have managed to cross some of the items off your list after all. But I am sure that if you were truly and brutally honest with yourself you will know that you haven’t achieved what you set out to do today at all.
 

“When people say to me, “How do you do so many things?” I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel, “how do you do so little?” It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.”
Philip Adam

 
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