Why we need a NOT-to-do list?
In the present-day society, we, human beings, are usually leading hectic lives, having tight schedules and working from sunrise to sunset since we no longer confine ourselves to only a particular career. Apart from our primary careers, most of us have secondary jobs, working part-time or freelance. It is true that on a daily basis, we all have to struggle to get all our work and duties done in time. As a result, we tend to think that we are always occupied and overloaded with excessive amounts of work, family commitments and social responsibilities. Having so many things to do makes us feel stressed and exhausted. And, we often feel that we have insufficient time to deal with the workload.
One conventional way that most of us use to manage our time so as to improve our efficiency and productivity is keeping a to-do list. In our to-do list, we usually write down the tasks we need to accomplish together with the deadlines, ordering the tasks and chores in terms of priorities: from the most urgent ones to less important ones. I, myself, also keep daily, weekly and monthly to-do lists like the others to complete my tasks. However, despite having a to-do list, it occasionally happens to us that we cannot cope with the work as planned, and some tasks are left unfinished. At first, I cannot figure out why it happens, and how to solve this problem. However, when I read a book named Life Leverage written by Brian Tracy, I come to realize that our to-do list fails because of not having a Not-to-do list. Thus, in this article, I would like to share some insights I have learnt from this book, i.e. why we should also keep a Not-to-do list, and what we ought to put in the list.
Using Social Media
We cannot deny that we are more likely to be distracted by social media like Facebook while we are working or studying online. For example, while searching online reading materials, students tend to enter social networking sites unintentionally, and get stuck in checking notifications, replying to comments, chatting, or reading the posts on newsfeed there. In this way, they unconsciously spend a significant proportion of their time on using social media. As negative consequences, they cannot finish their assignments as planned although they have exhausted their time. Therefore, we should put using social media in our Not-to-do list in order to improve efficiency and productivity.
Emails and Phone Calls
While we are studying or working, we may receive incoming calls or emails. In this situation, instead of replying to emails right away, or answering the phone and talking on it for a long time at the expense of working on our assigned tasks, it is a good idea to request the sender of email or the one who dials by saying “‘I am currently working. Can I get back to you a moment later after my work if it is not that urgent?” Then, we should focus on our work first. Only after the tasks are completed, we should deal with emails and phone calls.
Procrastination
The third factor that should be in our Not-to-do list is procrastination, which basically means the act of delaying or postponing something that must be done. Because, we, human beings, have a tendency to put off working maybe due to laziness or lack of interest or motivation. Thus, to beat procrastination, we should imagine a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment we will have once we get all the work done, and get down to the work as soon as possible.
In conclusion, it is a good idea to keep both To-do list and Not-to-do list, accomplishing the to-do tasks one after another without being distracted by not-to-do things. In this way, we will be able to boost efficiency and productivity of work, and yield better results.
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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar
23 March 2020
