This week, I deleted 2/3’rds of my tasks from my to-do list.
I went through a lot of mental effort to put them there. I assigned context, formulated them so there was no friction, and even added artificial deadlines for some to get them over the finish line.
They didn’t get done.
This happens to me most when it’s concerning articles to read or videos I saved to watch later.
After some point of repeated delays, this means they’re likely just not important enough after all. And that’s okay.
What’s not okay is getting more and more stressed from looking at an increasing pile of to-do’s that you know you’ll never get to.
The solution?
Declare to-do list bankruptcy. Ruthlessly delete tasks that you’ve postponed for days or weeks on end, and see how you feel after. I sure felt refreshed.
As long as the alternative to doing these tasks currently IS NOT sitting on the couch eating potato chips all day (though that’s nice too, every now and then), you can trust your intuition, and be left with a to-do list that contains relevant, actionable and timely tasks for you to attack.
Actionable advice for this week: delete tasks that are polluting your to-do list.
Worried about deleting tasks that are actually important? You can always add them back in later.