Quick snippets from our morning read on Thursday, 03rd December 2020
Today’s morning read addresses the aspect of productivity in our daily lives whether in work on in our personal lives. Nir Eyal shares some insight in his article on how To-do lists are supposed to keep us on task but do the very opposite.
The Case Against To-Do Lists (and What to Use Instead)
To-do lists make you think you’re the problem
Ever notice how much easier it is to add things to your to-do list than to actually do them? With no constraints, we just fill up our lists with even more things we’ll never finish.
What kind of identity does an ever-incomplete to-do list reinforce? Not a positive one. Having a constant reminder that we didn’t do what we said we’d do cements a self-stereotype. Eventually, we begrudgingly accept not following through. I’ll finish it tomorrow, we tell ourselves. What’s one more day? We repeat this cycle until the narrative begins to change from what we do to who we are.
To-do lists lead to distraction
Running your life using a to-do list leads to more distraction, not less. To understand why, it’s important to understand what “distraction” is.
To-do lists allow us to get distracted by the easy or urgent tasks at the expense of the important work. We get pulled off track by the most pernicious form of distraction — the kind we succumb to without realizing it’s happening. We run faster and faster in the name of getting things done, without realizing we’re headed in the wrong direction. Then when we finally realize we didn’t allocate the necessary time to work on the most important tasks, we tell ourselves, it’s okay. I crossed five things off my list. I’m good.
To-do lists destroy the fun in life
Before I staged a coup d’etat against my to-do list, I used to let my unfinished tasks invade my thoughts and leisure time. I’d sit down for a pleasant dinner with my family, only to start thinking about all the things left undone on my to-do list. Later, when I’d play with my daughter, the unchecked boxes would start to torment me.
A recent study found that intrusive thought, including thinking about what we “should” be doing, can kill the enjoyment of life’s most important pleasures. The tyranny of the to-do list comes not only from its power to waste our time while we’re working but also its ability to take over our minds while we’re trying to actually have a life.
Instead of being a to-do list maker, become a schedule builder
To free yourself from the tyranny of the to-do list, you must break the habit of looking at your list to tell you what to do. So what’s the alternative? Build a weekly schedule. Planning in advance how you intend to spend your time is the only way to know the difference between traction (what you said you would do) and distraction (anything else).
First, being a schedule builder instead of a to-do list maker affirms a better self-image. People are awful at predicting how long a task will take them to complete — hence our habitual failure to finish the tasks on our to-do lists.
Second, unlike a to-do list, deciding how you will spend your time in advance has been shown to lead to fewer distractions.
Finally, using a schedule brings back the fun in life by relieving the feeling that you should be doing something else. If you’ve scheduled time to play video games, there’s nowhere else you should be and nothing else you should do. Making a schedule doesn’t guarantee you’ll never go off track, but it’s important to be aware that when we don’t plan time in our day to do what really matters, life quickly falls out of balance.
Read the full article by Nir Eyal
And as always, if you enjoyed this, check out the rest of our daily snippets, curated daily, right here on The Red Notebook.
