If you ever get overwhelmed by starting a project, this life hack may just work for you – in fact, there are two versions of the ‘not to do list’.
Recently I wrote a story about how nuclear war could potentially cause a nuclear winter: a severe, prolonged climatic cooling (and not in a good way) of Earth.
My brain exploded. Sitting at my desk one morning, I had the transcript of my interview with an expert, his meaty PowerPoint presentation, my own notes – and no idea where to start. With complicated stories, starting is the most difficult bit, for me at least. I stared at my screen for maybe 30 minutes and started to feel overwhelmed. I knew I could do it, but I was struggling with the ‘how’.
I’m not an aficionado of to-do lists as they generally leave me thinking about what I haven’t crossed off rather than what I have. But I needed a way to approach this story – was a to-do list necessary? Resisting that approach, in my contrary way, I had an idea: I would write a Not To Do List. (I prefer its capitalisation, perhaps because it sounds more like an actual legitimate thing.)
At the start of each day that I worked on the story, I wrote down what I would not do that day, which informed and cordoned off what I would be doing that day. The first day, I told myself I was not going to start writing a draft, and would only be drawing up a plan for the structure of this story. That jump-started me. At the day’s end, I felt good about what I had done, rather than overwhelmed by what I yet had to do.
The next day I decided I would begin a draft, but I would not add in quotes from the transcript yet. I would only add key facts.
The next day I decided that I would start adding in material from the first half of the interview transcript, but I would not look at the second half.
You get the idea.
Using a Not To Do List was seriously helpful with that story. I did wonder if I’d been doing mental gymnastics that weren’t strictly necessary, but hey, it worked for me, and that’s what matters, right?
To avoid over-taxing myself that week, I also drew up a Not To Do List for non-work tasks. Child admin? Dishes? Grocery shop? Nope, nope and nope. My husband agreed to be in charge of all the things that week. Maybe I should deploy a Not To Do List more often! (To be fair, we already split tasks pretty fairly.)
Following this, I’m now trialling a Not To Do List more broadly. For instance, I’ll be scheduling some appointments this week (GP, dentist etc), so I’ve decided this is not the week when I’ll be investigating whether I’m paying too much for my mobile and internet bill (nor other such tasks). As a result, my brain hasn’t been drifting as often into the territory of what I should be doing or should have done. That word ‘should’ – can we maybe ban it?
After reading writer, podcaster and mindset coach Sarah Grynberg’s book Living A Life of Greatness: Steps to a Fulfilling Existence, which had a chapter on the power of meditation, I decided I would (not should!) return to mindfulness meditation after a couple of years’ hiatus. But I wondered whether I’d actually manage to do it at all, let alone somewhat regularly. Would the Not To Do List/approach work for this? Worth a try.
I told myself I was not allowed to meditate Monday through to Saturday. And voila, I’ve meditated on two subsequent Sundays. And that was before I thought of the story you’re now reading. Maybe I’ll start exercising in the weekend by telling myself not to do it Monday to Friday? Hmm… I’m less optimistic about that one, but ask me in a few weeks.
Have I found a life hack? Perhaps. Am I selflessly offering up a gift to the universe? Not exactly. A quick internet search made it clear that the Not To Do List is already a thing – but that most people don’t use it the way I’ve been using it. What they tend to do is compile a list of activities and tasks that they shouldn’t perform because they have low value, drain their energy, detract from their productivity, or distract from their goals. I can see how this could be a life hack too.
Amina Yonis – a public speaker, entrepreneur, academic coach and social-media content adviser – makes videos on brainy topics, particularly productivity, for her YouTube channel. She made a 10-minute video called ‘Why A Not-To-Do List Is More Important Than A To-Do List’, after stumbling on the topic while reading a blog.
As “the opposite of a traditional to-do list”, the concept spoke to her. Amina explains that, if she keeps thinking about things she feels she should be doing but isn’t doing, then that “can get really cumbersome and can weigh you down”. So what might be getting in the way?
Referencing examples from her own life – including checking emails a lot and scrolling social media a lot – she talks about the crossover between a Not To Do List and the Eisenhower matrix: a tool that helps you organise and prioritise tasks by urgency and importance. “The not-to-do list,” Amina says, “is essentially a way of saying ‘don’t do those things down there in the corner that aren’t important and that aren’t urgent’.” Or at least, don’t worry about them for now.
Amina recommends that, to make a Not To Do List, you start by actually looking over your to-do list (whether that’s written down, or just a succession of sentences in your brain). Perhaps go over the last month – use your calendar or diary if that helps – as that’s a decent time period to draw from. “You’re actually just looking at your to-do list from the past and determining what can be moved over to the not-to-do list.” That will help you not overthink it. The exercise could take between 30 minutes to an hour.
You may have internalised the idea that to-do lists are a good thing, so it might take time to get comfortable with a Not To Do List, should you try it out. A note to my editors: this does not mean I’ll be doing less; if anything, it may help me work better.
