Be a Schedule Builder, Not a To-Do List Maker

Time management practices, like any tool comes down to how it's used. A hammer can be used to build a house or bash someone’s head. With using to-do lists, getting tasks onto a piece of paper, or into an app, is a good thing. You start the workday with your to-do list, checking off boxes, maybe the wrong way to use this tool.

It's a broken Operating System and you've got to update it. Here's why.

Isn't it easier to add things to your TDL than to actually do them?

Not finishing them, we'd blame ourselves and our inability. But this negative self-talk reinforced a kind of stereotype that makes it less likely to accomplish goals.

Long-term adherence to a new set of actions necessitates seeing ourselves differently. Behavior change requires identity change. If you don't want to procrastinate, don't make promises to yourself you'll break, be indistractable. 

Having constant reminders of what you didn't do, cements a self-stereotype. You'll start to see yourself differently, for weeks or months.

Don't stick to the cycle of "I'll finish it tomorrow, what's one more day?". The narrative will slowly change from , from"I'm not good with deadlines" (what we do) to "I must have a short attention span" (who we are).

We begin to see ourselves as the problem and buy into a self-fulfilling prophecy, like from being 'easily distracted' to 'bad at managing time'. 

The opposite of 'distraction' is not focus, it's 'traction', and both are actions we decide to take and not things that happen to us. 

We cannot call something a distraction unless we know what it is distracting us from. 

If you knew you had a big project and need to meet your deadlines, glancing at your TDL gives you permission to escape into doing something else. Then you'll probably not feel like doing important tasks or keep putting it off or reconstruct your TDL.

TDL's allow us to get distracted by easy or urgent tasks at the expense of important work. 

Not giving enough time to our important tasks, we justify it by telling ourselves “there isn’t enough time left anyway,” or “I’m not in the mood,” or “I’ll definitely get to it tomorrow”.

Then deadlines loom over us and we realize we could've done better work with lesser stress if we just prioritized. We allowed the to-do list to distract us with frivolous tasks that gave us the deceptive feeling of being productive when we didn’t feel like doing what we said we would.

TDL's honestly occupy our minds like a hostile army, stressing us out and unfinished tasks invade thoughts and leisure time.

Some studies and their conclusions:

1. Thinking about what we “should” be doing, can kill the enjoyment of life’s important pleasures.
2. Mothers and fathers in many Western nations spend significantly more time with their children than previous generations.
3. Even though Americans have time to watch on average nearly five hours of television every day, they report feeling busier.

We've simply forgotten how wonderful it feels to have the peace of mind.

Upgrade your life OS and build a weekly schedule instead. An effective approach is “setting an implementation intention,” a fancy term for deciding what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it.

Plan in advance how you intend to spend your time to know your tractions and distractions that way and even have time for yourself and others while affirming your self-image.

Try to have as programmed a day as you possibly can. You have the same 24 hours in the day as me. 

Keeping a schedule makes it possible to devote your precious hours to the things that matter most to you.

We can all upgrade our life operating systems and learn better ways of getting more out of our day. And fortunately, this upgrade is free.