Skip to main content

Do NOT Do List

As we approach the Holiday season, my wife has started to make a “bucket” list of all the things she wants to do over the next few weeks. She is very festive. Me? Not so much. As we discussed my taking time off from work, she was very focused on all the activities we could add; meanwhile, I was thinking about all the things I would not be doing. What is the opposite of a bucket list? Whatever you call it, that is what I was planning.

Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to the festivities and traditions, especially time with family making this season memorable for the kids. But all this planning got me musing on the fact that lots of people have To-Do Lists to help with productivity, but what if we had “Do-Not-Do” Lists? Would that make us even more productive?

What if we started our day with Do-Not-Do lists before we even thought about what we needed to do? What would that impact look like? I do not have this all thought out yet, but it is something worth mulling over: What would a Do-Not-Do List look like?

Here is my starter Do-Not-Do List:

1.      DO NOT hit snooze. Get up with the alarm and get after it.

2.      DO NOT look at news stories. I need to begin the morning with something positive and uplifting, not negative and frustrating.

3.      DO NOT check email. All the problems and questions will still be there when I get to the office later. I must kick off the day being proactive, not reactive. The whirlwind can wait. Try to not even look at the phone for the first hour of my day.

4.      DO NOT eat anything sugary or unhealthy. I need to fuel my body with only healthy, helpful foods. In fact, I usually begin my day with a fast and let my body run off stored fuel for a while.

5.      DO NOT listen to music or talk radio on the way into town. I cannot afford to waste this time in the morning with entertainment. Either I should sit in silence and listen to my soul or use the time to listen to podcasts or books that both challenge and educate me.

So far, that Do-Not-Do List gets me only until about 7:30am. I’ll keep working on it. What does your Do-Not-Do List look like?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on
Post a Comment
Read more

Primed for Progress

Just as some pumps need to be primed to work effectively, our lives need to be “primed” to flow efficiently. Good mornings and productive days don’t happen by accident, and by “priming” your day, you can set yourself up for better results. Does it mean you won’t have bad days? Of course not, but it’s making your day happen instead of just waiting for what happens. Once again, it’s a choice of being proactive rather than reactive. You will still have challenges and difficulties, but how you face those hurdles and respond to the struggles will be different with a primed mindset. I am sure there are many ways to prime your day and set the tone for the hours ahead, and what works for one won’t necessarily work for all. However, the process of creating a plan or a model of how things should unfold is a great place for anyone to start. Also, as I have mentioned before, how you actually start the morning is critical - the battle with the alarm clock is your first chance at victory for
Post a Comment
Read more

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i
1 comment
Read more