Many years ago while in the middle of a mid-life crisis (I had them often in my early twenties), I decided to make a list. The List. It was essentially a to-do list on steroids. Nowadays they come with pictures and are called vision boards. But back then, I didn’t quite have that terminology available to me, so it was just A To-Do List.
It did, however, have an interesting characteristic. It had something from all facets of my life. “Get MBA” and “Write the great Somali novel” were listed right alongside “Sort out closet” and “Call Aunt X this weekend”.
The thing about a to-do list is that it is usually related to one or two areas of our life, typically work and logistics of living. We then duly prioritize and execute. What we may not realize is that we are only really prioritizing work and shopping lists. Other stuff – friends, family, personal development, good old-fashioned fun – just doesn’t get on the list. We are simply not used to listing actions related to our personal life right along with our professional life task list.
So before you get working on your next to-do list , try this:
1. List out the areas of your life.
Think about the various aspects of your life that are important to you. Below are some ideas to help you get started.
- Family and Friends
- Health and Fitness
- Romance and Marriage
- Work and Career
- Money and Finances
- Fun and Recreation
- Physical Environment
- Community
You can add or remove from this list as is most appropriate to you, but do try to keep it to around 5 or 6.
2. Categorize to-do list
For each item you put on your to-do list, slot it into one of your areas. The very fact that you have to categorize it will make you stop and think about why it is on your to-do list in the first place.
Gaining this added clarity on your own motivation and what is the goal that each task is contributing to, will give you that much added motivation.
On the other hand, if the task doesn’t even fit into one of your areas, you might choose to not do it at all.
3. Prioritize within each area
Typically you would prioritize your very long to-do list according to the usual criteria: urgency, importance, or my all-time favourite: “what I feel like doing now”. But rather than prioritizing all the tasks, prioritize within each area.
4. Pick the top items in each area
Now only pick the top 1-3 items (at least one and at most 3) under each area to make up your your brand-new, Ta-Dah!-ready list. It should have no more than 10 items on it. It is now a balanced list that reflects what’s important to you, and not what’s important to your boss, your spouse, or all the other stakeholders in your life.
5. Make it into a Ta-Dah!
As you work through your newly-balanced list, you will note a much higher level of ownership. Just because work area has more tasks under it, it doesn’t get to jump the queue or get more items selected from its pool.
As each item gets completed and you are that much closer to your overall life goals, it truly will feel like a series of Ta-Dah! moments.
About 12 years after that mid-life crisis, I found that old list. I was shocked and filled with gratitude to realize that 90% of it actually got done. Articulating and envisioning what we want is powerful. It is even more powerful to get action plans towards that balanced vision right into our daily task list.
Here’s wishing you lots of Ta-Dah! moments!
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