This morning I'm going through my old writing notebooks when I find several pages of To Do lists...it's interesting yet not too surprising that some of the things I still haven't done and they were from five years ago. Did I just lose interest or move on to something else? Did those items keep moving to the next list until I deemed them unimportant?
Maybe I got this idea from an accountability group I used to belong to or from a self-help book that I read but each To Do list also included a dread, drop and an add. I had forgotten about this and this was really helpful.
Today, write a to do list for the week. What would you love to have accomplished one week from today? What could you drop for the week that would make your life easier or would make you healthier or happier? What could you add? What do you dread dealing with? Put all of these three things on your list. Put the list where you will see it every morning. Do the "dreaded" thing and get it over with. You will feel great when you cross that dread off the list.
Just some suggestions:
Things to add
- An extra day of exercise
- A coffee with a friend and/or some time to yourself
- Another hour of writing time (scheduled)
- A special family dinner, movie or an art opening
- Gratitude
Things to drop
- Negative self-talk
- Gossiping
- Overspending at the grocery store because you go there hungry
- Overeating or drinking too much
- Too many TV hours
You'll be surprised if you do this on a regular basis you will start to look forward to your drop and adds.
Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag