Why 'to do' lists don't work... as well as 'done' lists

I’m a very sad person. I love ticking things off my ‘to do’ list. I love it so much that I actually add things to my list after I’ve done them just so I can tick them off.

It turns out that I’m not alone in this self reward behaviour. There’s something in the satisfaction of ticking things off (or, in my case, putting a wavy line through) that makes us feel in control of our workloads and good about our achievements.

Whether we use pen and paper, Microsoft Outlook, our iPhone or something like Todoist, everyone loves a good ‘to do’ list.

However, what happens on those days/weeks when we’re so busy we not only DON’T tick things off our lists, we keep adding to them? What do we when we feel completely overwhelmed by the ever-growing lists of tasks, chores and responsibilities?

Answer – write a ‘done’ list! 

Seriously.

It might sound like a waste of time, but ‘done’ lists give us an enormous sense of achievement. And that sense of achievement is what drives us on to (eventually) work through our responsibilities.

I discovered the benefits of the ‘done’ list when I was going through a particularly busy period in my life. I found the sheer amount of work overwhelming and the dissatisfaction of never completing my ‘to do’ lists utterly frustrating. Worse still, I was losing sleep, getting depressed and becoming more and more inefficient.

So one night I decided to write down all the things I had done that day – rather than focus on all the things that I hadn’t. It was enlightening. Yes, I hadn’t written my blog post but I had written damned good sales letters for BMW, MINI and Mazda. I hadn’t called everyone I was supposed to have called, but the people I did call were the ones who would have the greatest impact on the projects I was working on. 

The result was a feeling of great satisfaction, a more positive attitude to the next day’s jobs – and a decent night’s sleep, to boot.

If, like me, you judge your productivity by how many items you’ve ticked off your ‘to do’ list, it goes without saying that you feel a bit of a failure when it just keeps growing. So don’t abandon them altogether, just take a few moments (and it does only take a few moments) to scribble down everything you’ve achieved that day, or better still, that week. You’ll be amazed at just how productive you are. 

Would you get your own job if you applied for it again today?

It may be apocryphal but I once heard that everyone at Microsoft has to apply for his or her own job every year. It’s supposed to stop employees getting complacent and make sure that everyone stays ‘on top of their game’. From what I understand, everyone is on a sort of rolling contract and if they don’t get through the yearly interview, they’re out.

It’s not a policy that would attract me to a company, but I bet it gets Microsoft exactly the sort of people it wants to employ.

I started thinking about Microsoft again this week when I was shown the ad for my 'replacement'. I recently resigned from a part-time job I’d been doing for the best part of eight years. Granted, it had changed somewhat over those years but, on the whole, I was still doing a similar role to the one I’d ‘won’ back then.

On reading the ad, I couldn't help wondering how many of us are 'qualified’ to do our own jobs. If we had to apply for them again today,would we get them? We might be okay within the first, say, year to eighteen months, but how would we fair after a few years? Or, in my case, eight? The more I read the ad the more I realised that my chances were very slim indeed!

My employer is using my departure to get someone ‘better’. Someone with more e-marketing skills, someone who clearly understands acronyms (the ad was peppered with them) and someone who would do my job for a lot less than I was earning! Not only would I not get my own job, at that salary, I’m not sure I’d want it!

I remember years ago, a boss saying to me “you can never keep your best people”, which, in many ways, is true. By their very nature, the ‘best’ will always want to move on. But equally, while people leaving companies causes a hiccup, to begin with at least, it usually works out for the best for everyone. The former employee feels positive having made the ‘right decision’, ‘moved on’ and ‘grown’ in some way or other and the employer gets the chance to recruit a newer/younger/fresher/cheaper model.

That’s all well and good for the ambitious, but what about the people who are comfortable in the old job, those who do an okay job and sort of ‘coast’ along year after year? They might not need to go so far as applying for their own job every year, but it wouldn’t do them any harm to re-educate themselves every now and then and do a bit of self-promotion.

Right, where did I put the details on that ‘digital marketing social engagement customer touchpoint multi media platforms’ training course?