Why I Tossed my To-Do List Away
I am a procrastinator.
I wanted to change that, and after reading articles about it and writing one myself, I came up with a simple strategy. I decided to make a “To-Do List” and with a target to accomplish at-least 70 percent of it.I got a fancy diary with beautiful paintings and great organisation columns on each page and I decided to limit my list to a maximum of 7 action items. The joy of striking every action item after its completion, was addictive. There were some days when other high priority tasks came in along the way and I could hardly tick off a very few off my list. It stressed me out and I found myself procrastinating the following day and really trying way too hard to keep up this to-do list writing ritual. Ultimately, the entire purpose was getting marred.
It had been a month when I hadn't even open up my journal to write my To-Do list and slept every night with the guilt of not doing and promising myself to pick it up again the very next day which I again failed miserably at keeping. I realized a To-Do list is not what will solve my procrastination problem. To-Do list is not something which made me productive when I was following it a month back. I needed something more. I needed to connect internally and find the answer to what made me procrastinate in first place. If laziness was an internal fabric of my personality, why did I feel the need to delay working upon only a few things and not all the things. Why I don’t feel lazy getting up early in the morning to watch the Game of Thrones episode and feel extremely difficult to get out of my house for exercise later? Why do I feel too tired to complete a learning module I had started way back but not tired at all to ring up my friend and learn about whats up with her?
With some introspection I realized that the person I am, I usually would run away from things I am obligated to do. Things where I don’t see my free will and come under “has to be done/ have to do” category will bore me to no end and I would want to deal with them later “when the time comes” and there will always be a tomorrow.
I realized I didn't need a “To-Do” list; I needed a “To-Be” list.
Completing my action items on time would be the by-product of me transforming myself into a better productive individual.
I figured that if I changed the way I think about tasks, make them exciting, take innate interest in them and just be mindful and curious about them — If I become this person, I probably will never be lazy about anything ever. I have no clue how feasible this is, but I sure am giving it a try.
