Today I am continuing with my Productivity Myths series where I explain why some common productivity advice isn’t accurate and uncover the truth hidden beneath the myth so you can actually improve your productivity!
Productivity Myth #2: To Do Lists Keep You Focused and On Task.
The advice is pretty clear on this; make a to do list, complete the tasks, be a productive person. Hmm, more like clearly confusing, overwhelming and just plain wrong! Have you ever made a to do list? Grab a sheet of paper and write out all the things you need to do. Some of us can write tasks for pages on end, and then what? We just get started tacking this endless stream of work? Wrong!
To do lists are often touted as being the ultimate strategy of productivity. If you need to get things done, make a list of what you need to do and get started working. But this advice could dig you into a productivity hole if you are not careful and discerning.
You see, the big problem with to do lists is that when you make one, it likely isn’t prioritized or organized in any way to indicate to you which tasks are more urgent or important than others. Often, when we makes to do lists, our natural inclination is to start from the top and work our way down. Or we sift through the list and cherry pick tasks we think we can do easily or quickly just to get them off the list. But without a sense of organization, without a hierarchy that indicates which tasks truly are necessary and which are optional, we can fall into the trap of wasting our time on work that gets us nowhere!
It actually takes a tremendous amount of discipline and knowledge ahead of time to make a to do list work- which most of us aren’t employing when we execute on this false productivity strategy. Not to mention how complicated getting things done actually becomes when we work off of numerous to do lists or create a fresh list every single day. It’s like we are changing the game plan each time and not necessarily to optimize it. It can become a mess for most of us!
On top of that, did you know that research has shown that just the act of making a to do list makes you feel more productive, even if you never take action on anything on that list? So you can just make a list, and go take a nap and you just feel like you’ve done something even if you haven’t and then when the high of the list wears off, you are more behind than you were before the list was made. I hope you can see where I am coming from exposing the problematic nature of to do lists!
Finally, I dislike to do lists because I feel as though they often stand in the way of manifesting success from a place of ease and flow. Essentially a to do list is a step by step of what we think we should do or what we think we need to do to reach desired objectives, but as I explained in my post yesterday, that’s the hard way of doing things. Making a to do list and sticking to it, even as someone making a list with a high amount of knowledge and sense of priority, can still lead you to a longer road to achieving your goal.
What To Do Lists Actually Do for Your Productivity
All that being said, there is of course a vein of truth that does run through the advice and strategy of making a to do list, which is causing some people to benefit from the practice. Chiefly, sitting down and writing out a list of all the tasks and items you are storing in your mind is essentially executing on a truly productive strategy of brain dumping. Brain dumping, or a brain dump as I call it, is when you take everything you are thinking of and trying to remember in your brain, and listing it out. The practice unpacks ideas, tasks and memories and puts them in a more reliable and concrete storage method like a sheet of paper or even a digital list, which causes an instant sigh of relief for your brain. Despite popular misconception, our brains are not where we store information. They aren’t akin to the hard drive of a computer. There are intended for processing, like the RAM of a computer. Yes, you can hold onto some information in your working and short term memory, but as you learn new information, that old info is pushed out and lost. So, brain dumping relieves your mind of the burden of holding on to information. This is where the affect of feeling more productive comes from. It’s literally your brain feeling a weight lifted and redirecting energy towards fully processing tasks. It makes me think of when you sit down to watch tv and are still playing on your phone at one time. Your attention is split, so you aren’t fully enjoying either activity but you have a vague sense of what’s going on in both places. Then once you put the phone down and start paying full attention to the tv, you feel more focused on the show and may begin realizing there were things you missed that you need to go back to. That’s how your brain feels after you make a list. It has been paying attention to older information you are telling it to remember while at the same time trying to actively engage in the moment. So when the information is dumped out of your brain, suddenly it starts experiencing reality in the moment with a greater sense of focus.
Now, obviously, to do lists also work to help you remember tasks as well. Having a list on hand when you go to the grocery store is a great idea so you don’t forget what you went to buy. This is an example of the right time and the proper usage for a to do list. But these examples are few and just because a to do list helps you be more productive running errands, doesn’t mean it will help with productivity in other areas of your life.
So, moving forward now that you understand the myth of the to do list and how it actually affects your productivity, what I want you to focus on is how making and creating a to do list can become your step one in planning and organizing a productive day, but through the process of a brain dump. So, you can sit down and unload all the information you are storing in your working memory, but then you need to take some time to organize that information before you act on it. If you aren’t aware, the Charmed Life Master Planner contains an entire section of inserts dedicated to brain dumps where you can create your list and then using the structure of an Eisenhower matrix, prioritize the information by urgency and importance. From there you can integrate the more priority tasks into your day as you also functional plan to integrate them alongside other time obligations for a productive day. But never, ever, ever should you just make a to do list for the day and get to work on it… at least not if you are trying to manage your time and day productively!
I hope this information has been insightful to you and helps you to master the practice of true functional planning. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic and how you are using this information to benefit your life!
xoxo,
I love what you shared about wasting time on tasks that don’t need doing. I know I’ve definitely done this.
I never knew that making lists or brain dumping took the stresses out of trying to hold all the information in our brain. Thank you so much for sharing.
I am finally learning that making lists works sometimes, but when it comes to projects, I need to focus on just ONE at a time. I am remodeling a room in my house, but I was also trying to remodel my kitchen. Then I realized, the kitchen could wait, so I could have a cleaner/more organized home by doing the room remodel.
Thanks for this article.