Thanks for your comment. You have made the case for an accomplishments list better than I have. It’s reassuring to hear that there are others who see its value. In the end it is a personal choice of what works best for an individual, and we can all experiment. One does not rule out the other.

As an experiment I will try to run parrallel to-do and accomplishments lists for a month, the former for day-to-day to-dos and the latter for a longer term project and see what happens. Does anyone else want to try it?

Ford Harding

If you can’t enjoy the journey and celebrate small victories along the way, why are you on it?

You make a good case for graduate-level to-do listing. On reflection, I use a modified version of this myself. There is my regular list with two columns for the urgent and for the less so. Major projects, like writing a book, have their own lists, and items from those lists sometimes migrate to the regular list for more immediate attention.

That said and just to be contrary, let me take the other side for a bit. Something there is that does not love a list, especially a to-do list, which nags at us continually. When we respond to its prodding by whacking off a few items, it grows back longer and stronger like the weed it is. I am in total sympathy with Lars, who eventually found it demotivating. I recommned to all readers that if they find themselves listing such items as “kiss wife goodnight” it’s time to stop.

In contrast, an accomplishments list reminds you of what you have done without automatically contrasting it to the much longer list of things you haven’t. It becomes a challenge to see if you can make each day’s list longer than the last. Your can rate accomplishments by importance, providing a slightly more complicated but more robust way of measuring your successes. There is a lot to be said fot this.

Thanks for the comment.

Ford

Like John, I use Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system – or a variation of it anyway.

Allen uses lists in multiple ways. Firstly to get things out of your head and onto paper – ensuring you don’t forget them – and as John says, reducing your stress somewhat.

But all the things your write down don’t necessarily go onto the same list. Allen uses context sensitive lists – lists of things you can do when you have 5 mins to use the phone, or things you can do while at home, or in the office or at your computer. In this way you don’t have to think about the items on your list and figure out whether they can be done – you just go to the relevant list and work through it.

He also advocates only putting the very next actions on your list – the things you can do straight away. Actions which have predecessor tasks or can’t be done yet go into project lists or a “someday/maybe” list. Those ones are reviewed weekly/monthly and transferred to the Next Action lists as needed. That way you don’t overwhelm your Next Action lists with stuff you can’t do yet. So to some degree this would help with Lars’ problem. Things he couldn’t do yet wouldn’t go on to his Next Action (To Do) list to hang around as a constant reminder of his failure to do them – they’d be noted down in project lists for later consideration so he didn’t forget them.

Ian

You are saying that what is not on the to-do list is out of mind and won’t get done, a position that all advocates of to-do lists would support–myself included.

Lars’s case was special. His firm has an extreme low-leverage model, makig delegation impossible–we explored this carefully. He stated explicitly that the growing list of business development to-dos was demotivating. He is extremely focused and hard-working, so in this case, I felt an accomplishments list would serve him better. Time will tell.

Your suggestions are a good reminder that a tool is only as effective as the skill with which we wield it. I will share them with Lars. There are some tricks we can all learn about using something as seemingly simple as the old-fashioned to do list. Ford

Allen also gets you to focus on the next item in a project, and not to worry so much about all the steps of a project, or how daunting a project is. The whole project may take five years, but the next step along the way may take five minutes.

Having every to-do on a list, regularly reviewed, allows you to decide to do it, give yourself permission to skip it, or delegate it. If Lars is overwhelmed by his list, it’s a signal he needs to delegate more, or find the low-value tasks on his list and simply cross ‘em off.

regards, John