Shifting To Dos into “To Dones.”

I'll be honest. iM not a fan of to do lists. I dread them, and I've kind of despised them. I do like what they give me, though. I get stuff done, and I love crossing things out.

Not too long ago, someone told me they'd rather have “to dones” than “to dos”. That stuck with me.

Think about how much time we spend in meetings talking about everything we have to do. We list it, assign it, and promise to circle back. Then the list grows.

So I asked myself: what if I made time to actually knock stuff out?

Most “to dos” are just next steps.

Here's what I noticed. A lot of to dos aren't about finishing something big. iM not going to complete a 13-week project in five minutes. Most of the time the to do is a next step:

• Follow up on this.

• Summarize that.

• What are the next steps here?

Many of those take a couple of minutes. So rather than writing down 15 to dos, I ask, "Hey, can we knock this out right now?" Yeah, let's do it. Boom, boom, boom. Done.

Support makes it work

iM really good at knocking stuff out. What helps me is having someone to support me: to organize it, document it, and send it. That frees me up to do what I do best, which is take action in the moment.

Make time, not lists

I've been making time to do instead of listing what iM going to do. And I'm finding it a lot more fun and a lot more productive.

So here's my challenge to you. Next time you're about to add something to your list, ask yourself: could I. Could we turn this to do into a “to done” right now?

If it matters, knock it out.

Peace,

Coach Bob