The To-Do List Massacre

...and just like that, within minutes, I was able to 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟰𝟬% of the items on my long To-Do List...

The "𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱" list is something I started over a decade back. It started with 3-4 items (and hence the name was 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗼-𝗗𝗼). Over the years, the number of items started going up, threatening to break into three-digit figures. Some of the "weekend to-do" items added 6-7 years back still linger around on the list.

So this weekend, I put in a focused effort to complete as many as I could - a lot of them were low hanging fruits. But even after all the effort, all I could knock off was just 10% of the items on the long list. 

Yesterday, late evening, I opened the list again. I examined each and every item and started classifying them into 2 buckets. 

𝟭) 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹/𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹/𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼

𝟮) 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼/𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁

   𝟮𝗮) 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀

   𝟮𝗯) 𝗢𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀

The next step was fun. I started hitting backspace one line after another, deleting all the 𝟮𝗯) items, while all the 𝟮𝗮) items witnessed the "𝘛𝘰-𝘋𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦" in horror, probably fretting at the possibility of getting eliminated too. All the 𝟭)s probably felt relieved, to get some much earned breathing space and importance on the pricey "To-Do" real estate.

By the close of the weekend, while I had closed 10% of the tasks listed, I had simply deleted 30% that fell under 𝟮𝗮). That resulted in an overall reduction of nearly 40% in the list. The next target is to keep chipping away at the remaining 60% - via closure or elimination.

The items that got deleted were unlikely to get done if they werent critical and open for a long time. The experience was quite liberating. They say one should keep one's house/desk/surroundings uncluttered to aid clarity and productivity and help reduce stress levels. The same principle probably applies to our "To-Do" lists. Long ones can be overwhelming and one might just keep procrastinating clearing the items on it due to the sheer number and variety of items listed therein. 

When was the last time you cleaned up your To-Do list (be it around personal tasks or office/work related tasks)? A Monday is probably a good day to give it ( #SafaiAbhiyaan ) a shot. Trust me, it is indeed liberating.