Make Lists without Checking Old Lists

Here’s one on productivity for those of us who use lists as part of planning.

I have been guilty of taking older notes and adding unfinished tasks to the latest list. And not often enough, I try to wonder why some of those tasks that have gotten carried forward for too long, keep making it to the next list.

And then, to my relief, some of those items get crossed off forever.

Of course, I can’t do it for every task that gets dragged on over lists. My second book for instance, was on my list for over 2 years before I became aware of how I would want to put it together. Is is about odd, counterintuitive patterns in human behaviour, but I knew it couldn’t be a non-fiction. So, before seriously considering making a comic book out of it (I created 1–2 stories in a rough comic strip format and got feedback).

I even briefly went down a path of consider a comic where four friends started walking on Marine Drive from NCPA one evening in Mumbai, each sharing a story (a behavioural pattern), before making it to the eatery which is the last story in the book. And each panel in the comic was to have random buildings that come along that stretch. I eventually settled for the more practical but effective approach of short stories in conversational format, that keep the reader engaged and get them wondering a bit.

Point being, the book idea didn’t get crossed off because I was subconsciously aware it was important for me to eventually make it happen, one way or another.

But for each such task, there are many others which we don’t think or feel much about, and that just hide it out and piggyback on the rest of your pending tasks to every new list, without you ever intending to get working on them.

Brian Tracy suggests a simpler way of doing this with daily tasks.

He suggests writing 10 goals every day! You can start with less if you want.

And to write them without looking back at any previous lists.

Simple and brilliant because it would automatically eliminate any tasks that aren’t important enough for you to even remember from yesterday.

Your list just gets cleaner, and truer each day, with only goals that you resonate with and intend to work on and check off.

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