To actually do list

Today I experimented with making my to do list completely non-negotiable. You would think that’s the whole point of a to-do list, but for some reason my mind likes to pick and choose what I’ll actually follow through on.

When I write the list I have every intention of doing everything on it and being mega productive and progressive, but somehow when I come to actually follow through, I don’t do it. But what does that say about my commitment to my goals and dreams? It says I don’t care enough. And I don’t want that to be true.

So how did today go?
I got everything done. I’m actually a little bit surprised!
There was a point where I thought I wouldn’t, because I was completely running out of time to water the allotment (so I had to change my schedule around to do it in the evening instead) and then I didn’t feel like doing a livestream, but I just made sure I prioritised my list over my other activities (a.k.a. fluffing around on social media).

“Do a livestream” has been on my list every single day for 9 days now. Today was the first day I followed through, because I just made it absolutely non negotiable. Not doing it just wasn’t an option. Even as I write this I can see how silly it is that I didn’t do it at some point in the last 9 days.

My biggest takeaway is that this technique really makes you FACE the mental obstacles and blocks head on. I hadn’t done a livestream ever on Instagram so I had a mental block saying “put it off, it will take so much preparation to do a good one…blah blah blah." But because I HAD to do it, and I didn’t have much time, I just sat down and did it in the space of 10 minutes. I swear, just making my commitments non-negotiable is changing my life (it worked with exercise and meditation too).

I did get a LOT done today. But as someone pointed out, I also wasn’t really in a “flow” state. It was quite forced. My full morning routine took twice as long as I thought it would (I usually do some of it in the evening so I don’t realise how long it actually takes). About 1.5 hours. Eeeek.

It’s 2am and I just got back from a party (as you can see from the photo above), which was actually on my list of to dos - “do something fun with Georgia in the evening” (I’m 100% sober, but it still takes effort to write a blog post at this time!). I wanted to make sure I actually wrote this at the end of my day so I could sum up properly:

To sum up:

1. From now on I’m only going to add things to my daily to do list if I actually intend on doing them that day, because I am committing to viewing my daily to do lists as non-negotiable from now on. I think I’ll start writing a “to actually do list” instead of a to do list.

2. I’m going to make some changes to my morning routine to streamline it and get more in a flow state of mind with it.

3. The public accountability (Instagram) really motivated me. I don’t think I would have felt as dedicated to it if I hadn’t shared it with the world. So if you’re trying to do something, sharing it publicly somehow (Facebook groups, Instagram, email, offline conversations) can make a big difference.

Let me know if you want to start viewing your to do list as totally non-negotiable too (or if you always have!).