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| Don’t write off to-do lists (Headline: done!) | Don’t write off to-do lists (Headline: done!) |
| (6 months later) | |
| “Finished!” goes the cry of the satisfied primary school kid. He or she wants the rest of the class to know that the maths problem or poetry exercise has been completed. It’s a bit of childish gamesmanship, psyching out other classmates, as well as old-fashioned showing-off. But it’s also a comforting thought. Another task – done. | “Finished!” goes the cry of the satisfied primary school kid. He or she wants the rest of the class to know that the maths problem or poetry exercise has been completed. It’s a bit of childish gamesmanship, psyching out other classmates, as well as old-fashioned showing-off. But it’s also a comforting thought. Another task – done. |
| One reason we write to-do lists is the belief that one day, with any luck, we will be able to declare: “Finished!” and put a line through every item. That will be the moment, of course, to start drawing up the next one. | One reason we write to-do lists is the belief that one day, with any luck, we will be able to declare: “Finished!” and put a line through every item. That will be the moment, of course, to start drawing up the next one. |
| But sadly this is not how many of us use these lists. Often they are part comfort blanket, part displacement exercise. Some wags have been known to scribble, “Write to-do list” as item one. And scribble is perhaps the relevant verb. These lists are drawn up in a hurry to delude the scribbler that something is finally being done. If you can’t even read what the words on the list say, how can you know what you’re meant to be doing? | But sadly this is not how many of us use these lists. Often they are part comfort blanket, part displacement exercise. Some wags have been known to scribble, “Write to-do list” as item one. And scribble is perhaps the relevant verb. These lists are drawn up in a hurry to delude the scribbler that something is finally being done. If you can’t even read what the words on the list say, how can you know what you’re meant to be doing? |
| Others make the mistake of adding hopelessly ambitious items to their lists. “Lose weight,” it might go, or “Start saving money.” These may be worthy goals, but they are vast ones that can only be approached bit by bit, developing new habits that last. No wonder such unrealistic lists get scrunched up and binned, before being drawn up again along similar lines. It’s a bit like those daunting agenda items for meetings, perhaps number five or six on the list, that no one ever gets round to discussing. | Others make the mistake of adding hopelessly ambitious items to their lists. “Lose weight,” it might go, or “Start saving money.” These may be worthy goals, but they are vast ones that can only be approached bit by bit, developing new habits that last. No wonder such unrealistic lists get scrunched up and binned, before being drawn up again along similar lines. It’s a bit like those daunting agenda items for meetings, perhaps number five or six on the list, that no one ever gets round to discussing. |
| It is true that “to-do lists are where important tasks go to die”, as the time management guru Kevin Kruse has just argued. That does not mean that, used properly, they do not have value. The related concept of the checklist has become popular following the work of the surgeon and Harvard academic Atul Gawande. His simple suggestion, based on the experience of surgical teams, of drawing up a checklist before operations has reduced accidents and mortality rates significantly. Is anyone saying this sort of to-do list is a waste of time? As he explained recently on Desert Island Discs, experience has taught him and his colleagues that there is no mistake too stupid for them to make. Running through a pre-surgery checklist saves lives. | It is true that “to-do lists are where important tasks go to die”, as the time management guru Kevin Kruse has just argued. That does not mean that, used properly, they do not have value. The related concept of the checklist has become popular following the work of the surgeon and Harvard academic Atul Gawande. His simple suggestion, based on the experience of surgical teams, of drawing up a checklist before operations has reduced accidents and mortality rates significantly. Is anyone saying this sort of to-do list is a waste of time? As he explained recently on Desert Island Discs, experience has taught him and his colleagues that there is no mistake too stupid for them to make. Running through a pre-surgery checklist saves lives. |
| The “getting things done” guru David Allen makes the helpful point that big projects are naturally daunting, in part because we look at them as a whole, and fail to recognise that projects are made up of a series of much smaller tasks. If you draw up a list with only four or five manageable tasks on it, it might not look like a grand statement of intent. But it might actually be doable. And a series of completed lists will add up to a successful project. That is how the London 2012 Olympics happened. | The “getting things done” guru David Allen makes the helpful point that big projects are naturally daunting, in part because we look at them as a whole, and fail to recognise that projects are made up of a series of much smaller tasks. If you draw up a list with only four or five manageable tasks on it, it might not look like a grand statement of intent. But it might actually be doable. And a series of completed lists will add up to a successful project. That is how the London 2012 Olympics happened. |
| When all is said and done, more is said than done. The same applies to to-do lists. There are more entries than happy completions. There is also an uncomfortable relentlessness about those lists that never seem to get finished. As Paul Weller sang on the Jam’s 1982 track Just Who Is the 5 o’clock Hero?: “It seems a constant struggle just to exist/Scrimping and saving and crossing off lists.” | When all is said and done, more is said than done. The same applies to to-do lists. There are more entries than happy completions. There is also an uncomfortable relentlessness about those lists that never seem to get finished. As Paul Weller sang on the Jam’s 1982 track Just Who Is the 5 o’clock Hero?: “It seems a constant struggle just to exist/Scrimping and saving and crossing off lists.” |
| Don’t let that put you off. Try again. Shorten your to-do list. Take off the really big items. Make it doable. And take action. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. You can do it. | Don’t let that put you off. Try again. Shorten your to-do list. Take off the really big items. Make it doable. And take action. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. You can do it. |
| Guardian Opinion piece – done. | Guardian Opinion piece – done. |
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