The minimal to-do list: this has been my ideal for some time, but it seems a lot easier said than done, because there’s so many things that just keep coming up that just keep adding to this list of things to do.
But I have this vision of a to-do list that is extremely simple, so that I can just really- I don’t do anything that I don’t need to do, or at least it’s not on my to-do list, except for things that I really need to do, and they’re kept to a clear minimal level.
Just things I need to do, and anything else is optional things that I could choose to do, but it’s not something that I have to give myself like a to-do list.
So it’s like this backlog of things that I need to do.
A lot of them are mundane tasks.
Have to take care of certain upkeep.
I need to buy supplies, clean things.
Got to make appointments.
Then there’s reaching out, contacting people that I’ve been slow to reply to.
There’s of course all the work on my career and business, sorting everything out.
All these things where I have notes that were made that have been sitting around for months going on years, just things to look into.
And this has become this whole backlog.
And yet, of course, every day, every week, there are new things coming in, starting with basic upkeep of life, and then all the new business and new appointments that come up.
And it seems like it’s often hard to find time to go into the backlog.
But I like thinking of this as an ideal way of looking at things, an ideal way of proceeding, is just to go into that backlog and see that as a task.
My to-do list, an item on my to-do list, is to go into my backlog and shorten my to-do list.
Just make that list shorter.
Find any way to clear it out, simplify it, and tie up loose ends as the expression goes, and just reduce the number of things that are hanging over my head that I may at some point need to do.
And I feel like it gives this feeling of clarity and lightness and openness to not have these things hanging over my head.
Even though I don’t think about them most the time, they’re still there.
Things that are on an old- old to-do items that have fallen away, things that have been sitting on a list, and they’re just there in the background.
and it seems like a very useful way to spend time is to clear those old items away.
Take a dip into the backlog and just start whittling it down, until I can have a to-do list that is completely clear.
Seeing the different things that are required for me to do in life, the different domains of my life: what are my responsibilities that I need to take care of? What are the things that I need to do? And sort everything out so that I do all the things that need to be done.
And then other notes for maybe possible things to do: those are all arranged so that they can be accessed at the right time.
So everything is sort of fit into its own sphere of responsibility, and every sphere of responsibility is defined.
And this is sort of my ideal end state of all this, is to basically have here are the domains of my life.
Here is what I need to do.
Here’s what I’m responsible for, things that need to be done once and things that are like upkeep that are recurring that I need to take care of.
maintained to a certain standard.
Here is everything that I need to do.
So imagine just waking up in the morning and just knowing “This is everything I need to do in life.
This is all my responsibilities completely laid out and organized.” And there’s nothing that’s hidden.
There’s none of those tasks like “Oh, I know I should be doing something.
There’s these things I need to get done, but I’ve been delaying them, and there’s all these things that I need to go into, and I’m not quite sure.” But instead, imagine having all tasks in life laid out, and just knowing that as long as that list might be, that is it.
And outside these things, there’s nothing else I need to do in life.
That’s my ideal state of clarity that I’m working towards.
And it seems like the way there is to start wading into that deep backlog of things, and either doing them, or simplifying them, sorting them out, or cancelling them, and then getting things down to a very clear, minimal list.
So if you have any ideas about how this can be done, I would love to hear from you: how can we do this? How can we simplify that endless, ancient to-do list, and bring it down into one clear system?
#backlog #todolist #minimalism