Hello reddit! This is my first post on reddit but after a few months of only lurking around and reading your inspiring stories and tips I thought it's about time that I contribute a little. Just before I start a wanted to mention something. English isn't my native language so if anything's unclear just ask and I'll try to describe it better. If I have any significant mistakes in my text and you would like to see them corrected, send me a message! Anyways here we go:
I guess most of you have a to-do list or at least tried to make one but it didn't went anywhere. At the moment I'm reading a book about the power of Discipline that makes an interesting point. The authors mention that most to-do lists make the huge mistake to approach task and things you need to get done on a completely wrong way. It's important to rethink your goals and focus on how you get them done and less about what they are about. That sounds rather abstract and I'll try to get to the point and why I choosed this title.
So next week is the birthday of a good friend of you, let's call her Clara. People like me would probably write something like:
- write a birthday card for Clara
on there to-do list. But this formulation is very poorly choosen and has a really bad influence on our subconciousness. It's totally fine to write something like this on your list IF you already have a birthday card and a pen and you're ready to go. If not then there are a few problems with this point.
So I think it's now obvious that the biggest part of this goal is actually getting the birthday card, not writing it like it suggests. It sounds like just a small detail, something that everybody who's not a total idiot would think of but sometimes people are just stupid.
Anyways there's a good possibility that we are realising the problem when it's already to late, meaning when we just collected all our motivation to get our to-do list done. And then thinks like this could happen:
You're motivated and wants to get your stuff finally done, but you just can't. In this case maybe the shops are already closed and you can't get a birthday card anymore. And this can create a loopwhole that eats up our motivation and discipline. I lot of posts already mentioned this or talked about it and I think it's a rather well-known fact, but if you don't know about it here's the short version: Your amount of discipline/motivation is limited and is exhausted with every task that we forces ourself to get done.
The problem at this point is that we are confronted with something that we want to get done, but just can't do. That can feel extremely frustrating and drains our motivation rather quickly without us realizing it. In addition not truely realizing what a task is about can cost way more time and motivation than getting it done right directly from the beginning. Just stopping at a shop on my way home costs me 5 minutes while driving into the city will take me maybe 20-30 minutes. The last point is that you'll probably have way more points on your to-list than just a simple birthday card. If you'll see on your first look what you're points are really about, you can link them together and get them done at once. Let's say you have the following three points on your to-do list:
- refill refrigerator
- repair lamp
- birthday card for Clara
This sounds like things that have nothing really in common, but let's reformulate them a little:
- go groggerie shopping
- buy a new light bulp
- buy a birthday card
Isn't it obvious now that you can get it a few points done with a simple trip to the supermarket? Suddenly it feels almost tempting to get your to-do list done in one simple trip.
I think we're getting to the core now and what I try to explain. You're to-do list shouldn't be just about things in general that you want to get done. Instead turn it into a list that tells you exactly what you have to do. There are a few points that I could think about that'll could help you do a to-do list:
- write two versions of you're to-do list. First a blueprint with goals and things you want to get done. Afterwards you make a second list with all steps that will add up in the end.
- Imagined that you're creating the list for someone else that should help you get your stuff done. Make it clear what you need. You don't need to explain the higher cause of it.
- Make underpoints for your tasks e.g.:
->Clara's birthdaycard -> buy a card -> write the card
Peww... that was a lot of text for just a birthday card but I hope it got you thinking. Maybe you could give your personal opinion or experience in the comments below. Thanks for your attention!
Have a nice week!
tl;dr: If you can't stick to a to-do list, formulate it like even a idiot could get it done 'cause there's the chance that you are one. ;)
Submitted June 20, 2016 at 06:56PM by Maaaarv http://ift.tt/28IW2Kx getdisciplined
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