We all have the tendency to stock up work. We desire to achieve various targets, and it is easy for us to accumulate a list of work until it gets too overwhelming.
We Keep doing a To-Do-List..But it doesn’t really help.
Time seems to be never enough for you although every single person practically got the same amount of hours per day. A lot of us may keep a To-Do List for staying on track of what we are doing, but deep down we all know it is just a bunch of wishing thinking and half of the list will be never be finished and forgotten simply due to the fact that its seems physically impossible to complete it.
Author William J. Reilly suggested in his book How to avoid work the 3 most common excuses we use when we fail to do something:
- ‘I haven’t the time.’
- ‘I haven’t the money.’
- ‘My folks don’t want me to.’
But is it true? Is it an unavoidable cause, or did we subconsciously put ourselves into this situation?Author Jim Collins suggested his way out of this dilemma: don’t focus on the things that you need to do, focus on those that you can stop doing.
We need a reminder on things we should avoid doing too.
Write a “stop doing” list rather than a To-Do List.Steve Jobs once said the success of Apple is largely due to the projects they choose to not do. Instead of trying to achieve everything in your scope, we should pick those that worth our effort.
By considering the things we don’t need to do, we can greatly reduce the number of workload and maximise our benefits and output. This is where the “stop doing” list comes into play.
So now you are starting to build your “stop doing” list, but then how can we distinguish the things that we should do and those we should stop doing? Collins suggested us to use the Hedgehog Concept.
Ask yourself 3 questions:
1. What are you deeply passionate about?
Passion is a really important factor to consider as it is the key to empowering yourself in achieving a particular goal. Working on jobs that you are not passionate in is like driving a car without fuel— you won’t get far with it, and you won’t get much out of it.
2. What are you genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just “made to do”?
We are all good at doing something. Your strength could be something that I lack of. We are also trained to function in different aspects of our society. So choose something that suits you in terms of your ability. Pick tasks you are comfortable with. You could have saved those time you used struggling to complete a task you are not familiar with.
3. What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?
Sometimes you just have to be a realist. In reality we cannot achieve much of what we want without the sufficient economic power. Dreams will only be dreams when you got no cash. So pick the things that can builds your financial base.
So here comes the answers of what to put into your stop-doing list.
If you encounter something that makes you reply “No”,”No” and “No” for these 3 questions. You probably can put it into your “stop doing” list.So the next time when you start thinking of your new year resolution don’t simply jot down things that you can do. Start now with your “stop doing” list! Think of the things that made you feel miserable, things that you did because of obligations, and things that you thought could make your life better but never really did.Write them down, have a look at the list, and stop.
