Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that you shouldn't assign yourself tasks that you aren't actually going to do. It's better to be honest about what you plan to get done, so you can treat your to do list as a contract with yourself. In years of talking about productivity, I know some people take pride in having a lengthy to do list. There are like a thousand items on it, ten thousand, or it stretches for eight pages in a word document, or it has long and nebulous items on it, like right book, to which I say, that is not a to do list. It might be a list of something, but it is not a to do list. A to do list is a list of things you actually intend to do in a defined period of time. It could be a weekly to do list or more commonly, a daily to do list. But the key thing is that whatever length of time you are choosing, the only things that should go on this list are things you actually intend to do in that time. In other words, don't assign yourself work if you won't do it. There is no virtue in putting something on a to do list and then not doing it, it is just as not done as if you never put it on the list in the first place, only now you feel bad about it too, which is even worse of an outcome. Ideally, a to do list is a contract with yourself. When you put something on it, you are telling yourself that you will in fact do it. In the time your to do list covers, you develop the discipline of knowing exactly what you can do and doing whatever you say you will do. That way, you can feel confident putting an item on a future to do list knowing you will do it. Then you don't feel panicked about assigning a thing that is due Friday to Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because you know whatever you assigned to Tuesday will happen Tuesday, and whatever you assigned to Wednesday will happen Wednesday. Now. Of course, whenever I say this, people point out the obvious, what if something comes up, what if life happens, to which I say, of course, things are going to come up. Life never goes exactly as planned. Your to do list needs to reflect things that you will do, even when the normal emergencies happen. A kid is sick, the babysitter is late, you get stuck behind an accident on the way to work, a colleague's plane is delayedid you get a big last minute request from a top client. While these things might not all be normal, none of them are out of the realm of possibility. You don't need to prepare for things that are let's say, a one out of a thousand chance or less. If a meteorite strikes your office building, everyone will have bigger problems than that client proposal being late, but they're being extra Traffic when it's raining isn't some sort of crazy unknown. You want to be sure that even if these normal, abnormal things happen, the items on your to do list should be things you will get through. The obvious conclusion from that is that the list needs to be short. Clearly, if you'd need to pick up a sick kit at one PM and the power would go out in your house for eight hours, you would not be able to get to a huge number of things. Most people can only choose about three, maybe five major things beyond the hard landscape of the day. But that is okay because the act of creating a to do list should be the act of choosing. When you create a to do list, you are saying that these are the things that are most important for me to do today. These are the things that even if everything else goes wrong, I want to complete the act of choosing forces prioritization, and that is not a bad thing. If the sun is shining and the world is good, and you get through your to do list by ten am, by all means go find some more things to do. I'm sure you have a running list somewhere. That's that ten thousand item lists that people are so proud of. But to do means today. So don't assign yourself work if you don't actually intend to do it. You will find yourself much more productive if you are honest about this. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that you shouldn't assign yourself tasks that you aren't actually going to do. It's better to be honest about what you plan to get done, so you can treat your to do list as a contract with yourself. In years of talking about productivity, I know some people take pride in having a lengthy to do list. There are like a thousand items on it, ten thousand, or it stretches for eight pages in a word document, or it has long and nebulous items on it, like right book, to which I say, that is not a to do list. It might be a list of something, but it is not a to do list. A to do list is a list of things you actually intend to do in a defined period of time. It could be a weekly to do list or more commonly, a daily to do list. But the key thing is that whatever length of time you are choosing, the only things that should go on this list are things you actually intend to do in that time. In other words, don't assign yourself work if you won't do it. There is no virtue in putting something on a to do list and then not doing it, it is just as not done as if you never put it on the list in the first place, only now you feel bad about it too, which is even worse of an outcome. Ideally, a to do list is a contract with yourself. When you put something on it, you are telling yourself that you will in fact do it. In the time your to do list covers, you develop the discipline of knowing exactly what you can do and doing whatever you say you will do. That way, you can feel confident putting an item on a future to do list knowing you will do it. Then you don't feel panicked about assigning a thing that is due Friday to Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because you know whatever you assigned to Tuesday will happen Tuesday, and whatever you assigned to Wednesday will happen Wednesday. Now. Of course, whenever I say this, people point out the obvious, what if something comes up, what if life happens, to which I say, of course, things are going to come up. Life never goes exactly as planned. Your to do list needs to reflect things that you will do, even when the normal emergencies happen. A kid is sick, the babysitter is late, you get stuck behind an accident on the way to work, a colleague's plane is delayedid you get a big last minute request from a top client. While these things might not all be normal, none of them are out of the realm of possibility. You don't need to prepare for things that are let's say, a one out of a thousand chance or less. If a meteorite strikes your office building, everyone will have bigger problems than that client proposal being late, but they're being extra Traffic when it's raining isn't some sort of crazy unknown. You want to be sure that even if these normal, abnormal things happen, the items on your to do list should be things you will get through. The obvious conclusion from that is that the list needs to be short. Clearly, if you'd need to pick up a sick kit at one PM and the power would go out in your house for eight hours, you would not be able to get to a huge number of things. Most people can only choose about three, maybe five major things beyond the hard landscape of the day. But that is okay because the act of creating a to do list should be the act of choosing. When you create a to do list, you are saying that these are the things that are most important for me to do today. These are the things that even if everything else goes wrong, I want to complete the act of choosing forces prioritization, and that is not a bad thing. If the sun is shining and the world is good, and you get through your to do list by ten am, by all means go find some more things to do. I'm sure you have a running list somewhere. That's that ten thousand item lists that people are so proud of. But to do means today. So don't assign yourself work if you don't actually intend to do it. You will find yourself much more productive if you are honest about this. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,