The Effectiveness of the ‘To Do’ List

Today I feel a little overwhelmed. It is a condition I like to call acedia which, if you care to look it up, you will find means ‘spiritual sloth’. As I think of it, it relates to the unwillingness to get on with what you know you should be doing.

In my case, I have a mountain of stuff to be doing and all of those tasks are important and one or two are a little beyond being urgent i.e. they are overdue. I know the antidote too – so I have no excuse.

Making a list is one of the most useful time management tricks in my arsenal. It helps to create the illusion of being in control and, provided you actually start working your way through it, it can give you a sense of achievement as you subsequently cross things from it.

So what does my list look like:

• Do my Tax Return
• Pay my NI
• Submit my Invoices for Workshops
• Return Feedback Forms for Last Workshop
• Sort out my Filing
• Go to the Bank
• Sort out Hospital Appointment
• Write the Tutorial Course for Loyaltepays
• Submit New Books to Loyaltepays
• Write a Shelfari Page for my Kindle Books
• Update the Biggerbux website
• Write my Daily Blog Post
• Setup New Subliminals Product
• Setup New Six Pack Abs Product

Well, perhaps I may have (unintentionally) left one or two things off there, but that’s about it, I think.

And now that I have made my list, I do feel a little better. For one thing, I can check my ‘daily blog post’ task off the list right away so that’s two birds with one stone 😉

And now that I look at that list. I can see a few things that really won’t take that much time. I have my workshop feedback forms to send to the company that employed me, for example. Well, that’s a five minute job and I can post them while I take the dog for a walk, so that’s two jobs off the list already.

Yes, there’s no doubt about it, making a list is definitely the right thing to do when you are feeling like this. I think Brain Tracy put it best, “feeling listless?” he said, “then make a list”.