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Ditch the To-Do List?
Or, how to increase stress and decrease effectiveness
Lady Mondegreen
Repeating misundertood lyrics is common enough that Sylvia Wright assigned the term “mondegreen” in the 1950s. And sometimes a mistake is the logical explanation. Take the unlikely hit, “I Like Girls” by Elton John. It was every fifth song on only the radio station that played in the lab at work one summer. Weeks went by before a colleague corrected me. “It’s Island Girls.” OOOHHHH! That makes more sense. Elton’s conversion would have made the news.
Bad advice
And so it is with advice so cosmically bad, you have to make the speaker repeat what they said to be sure you aren’t creating your own mondegreen.
Take the latest advice that we “Itch the voodooist.” Many recognized names in the #productivity space are shaking the stick.
Come again?
“Ditch the to do list,” they repeat, like a toddler who just spoke a bad word. “Lists are too long and they bully us into what to work on next.”
Sweet mercy. Play me a Calm meditation.
Put a pin in it
Now, smart people are willingly giving their time and attention to these reckless advisors, but it’s just the packaging that mesmerizes. Once opened, it’s hollow. Here are five points and counterpoints. By the end, you’ll be glad you kept your to-do list (and your not-to-do list, but that’s another topic).
Lie #1: Intentions are better than tasks
Proponents of this nonsense suggest you merely intend to be a certain way or achieve an outcome. But which way? Which outcome? If you don’t have a list (or stack of index cards, for me), how do you know you’re being the most effective you, or working on the thing that’s actually due first thing tomorrow morning? If your department’s budget is due tomorrow and you haven’t started, you better get mathy and fill in the Excel template.
Lie #2: Use time-blocking
These folks might theme for their days or block chunks of time from meetings to work on Something Big and Important. Now, how is the practitioner going to remember all of the accounts that need follow…
