Crossing Items Off Your To-Do List Won't Move Your Life Forward. But This Will
Embrace the limit of life so you can go from “to-do” list to “move-life-forward” list.
You wake up.
You grab your phone.
You feel like reading an article.
You go to your “read-later” list. 167 options to choose from.
You spend 30 minutes deciding which one gets you the most bang for your buck.
You get overwhelmed by the amount of options you have.
You get frustrated. You quit and go to Instagram.
All because your productivity apps don’t have a limit. And this lack of limit is screwing your brain.
Here’s why.
All productivity apps make you feel you can bite more than you can chew
6 months ago I looked at my list of “read-later” articles and I confessed to myself “I’m never gonna read all this”.
Admitting that to myself made me anxious and overwhelmed.
Why?
Because each one of the articles saved was a potential golden nugget of information. Something that could change my life. And even still… I didn’t schedule time to read them.
It was time to face the facts. And start deleting the ones I’d never read.
At the time, I deleted 60 out of 88 articles. Progress, right?
Fast-forward 6 months and I'm not back at square zero. I’m at square -37.
My read-later list rushed back to 35 articles. Then to 50. Then to (now) 68. The problem is not finding interesting articles to read.
The problem is time.
Who has time to read 68 articles?
I don’t. But do you think my to-do app cares? Of course not! Its job is to deal with anything you throw at it. Wanna save 10 articles to read later? Great. Wanna save 1,000? Also great.
And that’s the problem. Apps don’t need to deal with time constraints like the rest of us. They work 24/7. They don’t get sick. They don’t take vacation. They don’t ask what’s the meaning of life. They don’t stop. And because of that, you start to think you also can’t stop. And that you’re the reason you can’t get stuff done.
And the more items you add to your read-later list, the more guilty you feel when you can’t read them. Life keeps “getting in the way” of your productivity. And you keep telling yourself “When things are under control, I’ll read them.”
Then 6 months later the list is twice as long.
You Google “productivity hacks”. You find out you’re wasting precious time waiting for coffee. 3 minutes and 37 seconds you could spend reading!
But that’s like grabbing a bucket and asking people to stay calm while you keep the Titanic from sinking.
Why?
Because this hack assumes you suck at time management. And all you need to do to fix your problem is to squeeze as much value as you can from every minute of your day. Like an old bottle of ketchup, if you shake and squeeze hard enough, you think you’ll find more time in there.
But you won’t. You can’t hack your way into a 30-hour day. You only get 24 hours.
The problem is not time management.
The real problem is not focusing on the right things. Not being able to prioritize. Not being mindful about how you want to spend your time.
Life has a time limit. Embrace it so you can go from “to-do” list to “move-life-forward” list.
Having limits in your digital life is a good way to find your priorities in real life
You might’ve been brainwashed to act like you need to complete 37 tasks every day. Or you’re a loser (many floating hands point at you with background laughter).
The thing is… it doesn’t matter if you get all 37 tasks done. What matters is how they align with your bigger goals.
It feels good to cross off tasks from your to-do list.
You think "Great progress today. I completed 21 tasks!"
Then you look at your goals in life and you realize they have nothing to do with them. They didn’t move the needle. You’re not one inch closer to where you wanna be.
So what was the point of getting all those tasks done? To feel good.
That’s why for the past 3 weeks I’ve started a Sunday ritual. A sort of check-in with myself to see if I’m on the right track. And it’s simple. I look at old tasks gathering dust in the cloud and ask myself these 2 questions:
Does this matter to me?
Will I ever complete this?
It only works if you’re honest.
Looking back at my read-later list, I confess most of what I saved there was in the heat of the moment. A good headline, a cool thumbnail, and whatever I was interested in right after I ate my daily apple. I could delete 99% of it and I won’t even remember them.
Of course… It’s not that easy. I get it. Sometimes you really want to read that one article, but haven’t found 5 minutes in the past 13 months to read it.
Still, it’s a good exercise to get rid of digital bytes slowing you down. And easier to get clarity on what you want to do.
Now it’s your turn to clear some headspace. Go through your consume-later lists and be honest with yourself. What do you really want to read, watch, listen to? What are you going to set the time on your calendar to do?
Use this Japanese philosophy to get clarity on what you need to do daily
For a long time I started my day looking at my to-do list not sure how to tackle it.
You start running scenarios in your head, hoping to get figure out the most efficient way to go about your day. Then it’s 11am and you’ve wasted 3 hours of your morning planning a 30-minute activity.
That’s why having a limit is important. It avoids you getting stuck in planning phase.
Of course, it’s not like I have the perfect schedule now. Sometimes I don’t plan for the next day. Sometimes I get distracted by stupid things. Sometimes I don’t know what to do in the morning.
And it’s OK to feel this way. It’s part of life not to act like a robot 24/7.
So, whenever brain fog happens to me, I have a quick fix for it. I ask myself:
What are the 3 goals I want to accomplish today?
That’s it. 3 things.
No need to go through all my tasks to figure out what I need to do. I just need to remind myself what I want to achieve. And make sure I’m investing my time in the process to get there.
And the best time to do this is right before bed. Because you go to bed knowing what yuo need to do in the morning. So when you wake up, you’re ready to start your day.
Yes, it’s dead simple. And yes, it works
Why?
Because it’s simple. It can’t get any simpler than that.
You could try fancy task management systems. But… Getting the right sh*t done comes down to picking your most important tasks and completing them.
But how do I do that?
Glad you asked. It goes like this:
Pick 3 goals you want to achieve today (or the next day, depending on when you do this)
Pick 3 things you know you’re gonna complete ON TOP OF all the other things life throws at you during the day
Yes, 3 is a random number. You can do 4. 5. Doesn’t matter. What matters is keeping it small enough to make sure you can complete them. And to make sure you don’t treat your day like a Swiss clock, where everything is smooth and perfect. Sh*t happens. Keep that in mind. You can’t predict how crazy your day is gonna get.
Sometimes you’re laser-focused and get everything done. Other times people are burning buses in city center and you want to know what’s going on.
The point is you should have time to breathe.
Now… How do you choose your top 3 tasks?
Simple… Follow the Kaizen Principle.
The Kaizen Principle is a philosophy to create small incremental improvements in your daily life with the goal of skill mastery over performance. While forgetting about external comparison (unless it inspires you to be better).
3 things to keep in mind with the Kaizen Principle:
Small incremental improvements. What matters is you getting better every day. It doesn’t matter how small it is. It has to move the skill needle.
Skill mastery over performance. Focus on the process of getting better. Not on the success and fame you might achieve someday when you get good.
No external comparisons. There will always be someone better than you. That’s why comparing to your old self is a better metric than comparing to the guy at the top.
So, with that in mind, you can ask yourself “What do I want to improve?”
Ideally you’ll have a bigger goal in mind. And your 3 daily goals will move the needle, getting you closer to where you want to be.
For example, my big goal in life is to write better and to be more physically flexible (too much hip pain).
So my 3 goals should match that bigger goal. They could be:
Write/edit a blog post
Do a 30-min stretch routine
Watch another module of the course I bought
Now let’s take writing and apply the 3 Kaizen principles:
Writing every day makes sure I get better. It focuses on small improvements over time
To keep me going, I need to focus on the process of getting better. Focusing on views, likes, and shares is the fastest way to get pissed at the world and quit because you’re not seeing the success (performance) you imagined.
There are a billion people who write better than me. That are more successful than me. That made a lot more money than me writing online. Should I care? No! I should care only about where I was 6 months ago. Am I better, the same, or worse?
Finding clarity in life is not complicated. But it has to be meaningful. Otherwise you’re spending precious life rations on useless things that don’t match your goals. Then you wake up in 40 years regretting all that wasted time.
Takeaway
Your energy. Your brain. Your body. They all have limits.
The digital world doesn’t.
Don’t be fooled by productivity apps. They make you think you’re invincible and limitless, when in reality you’ll always be limited to 24 hours.
Instead of trying to do everything like a machine, be mindful about where you want to be.
Here’s a quick recap of how to have a better relationship with your to-do apps
Clean out all the “read-later” tasks you know you’re not gonna complete
Every day, choose 3 critical tasks you want to complete.
Make sure these 3 are moving you closer to your goal
Keep these in mind every day and you’ll start to have a different relationship with your time. You won’t get a second chance.