Letting Go of Lists

“Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing.” (Austin Kleon)

Is your life ruled by lists?

If you think about it, it probably is.

We have the daily to-do lists of chores and meetings that must be accomplished in order to move onto the next day’s list.

We have the shopping lists, the meal planning lists, and the lists of bills to pay.

We have the unstated lists of things that we think we need to achieve by a certain age, a certain time, a certain moment in order to say we have succeeded at life.

We have lists of books that we are supposed to have read, foods that we are supposed to have tried, places we are supposed to have visited.

Every week I make a list of meetings and events I have scheduled. Goals for the week. Continuous challenges for myself as I design the life and career of my dreams. I write these lists in pencil, because it allows for shifts and changes in a list that is ever morphing. I hand write them because that helps keep them in my memory, the visceral feel of pencil to paper working better than a list typed into a keyboard or my phone.

(On a side note, I have a dream list of things I’d like to get someday, including one of those tablets where you can handwrite, but it replaces paper).

I love crossing things off of my lists, creating a blackened landscape that tells me I have been working and doing and achieving. But there are always things that carry over, or tasks and words that have been added. There is always something else that needs to get done. The list is endless, and often leads to the creation of yet more lists.

As I am writing this list about lists, I’ve noticed something. It contains words and phrases that I find problematic:

• “need to achieve”
• “must be accomplished”
• “supposed to have read”
• “in order to say we have succeeded”

What’s the problem with these phrases, with this list? They are defined by something outside of ourselves. To paraphrase author Austin Kleon, a writer who draws, these phrases are all about getting things done, rather than doing things worth doing.

What happens if we shift our focus away from simply knocking things off of a list, and spend more time focusing on things worth doing? What would happen if we became more playful with our lists — treating them as suggestions and opportunities rather than a rigid agenda that must be followed in order to move forward? What would happen if lists became less time and achievement focused, and focused instead on the process of doing?

In my experience, I get more done and I enjoy the process more.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are certain things we have to do. We need to eat, to make healthy choices, to accomplish the work we get paid for, and to clean our bodies and our homes. But even these things should be things worth doing, not simply tasks we check off of our lists.

Yes, work we get paid for should be something worth doing. If it’s not, then we will always be ruled by our lists because we continue to do things simply to check off one of the big goals of many people’s lists:

Should that goal be at the top of your list? For some, the answer is yes. However, is it possible that re-imagining your lists will add both more joy and money flow, if you have the courage to try?

In my experience, the answer is yes.