My extended quirky to do list part 4 – what to stop doing
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Humor & comedy
Continuing the spirit of the requisite New Year’s musings, my last 3 posts describe an extended, quirky to-do list tool that I use in my corporate training (click here to download a copy for you to use). It has 5 parts:
– to do, to continue doing, to stop doing, to not do, to done (no, the last one’s not a typo) (here’s a description of each)
I also promised to share with you how I’m personally filling it in. For my 2010 to-do’s see this post. For my continue to do’s see this post.
Most to-do’s are about adding. Adding things to already too full plates. That’s why I like this part of my list, which is things to stop doing.
This year I’m pledging to stop finishing things. Yes, up to this point I am a determined finisher. Start reading a book, article, project, or task? In my head the only possibility was finishing. In fact up to this point I’ve been known to get bug-eyed and twitchy about things left undone.Stopping part way was not an option even when it made a whole lot of sense to do that.
No more.
Partly due to Tim Ferris’ advice I vow to not finish things. I’ll stop the auto-pilot, knee jerk reaction that screams “what? you can’t stop! you must finish or terrible, horrible, no good, really bad things will happen”. I’m going to assume that if I stop reading a book that I don’t really like, stop doing a task that isn’t meeting my needs, or horror of horrors course correct and change business strategies part way through, that the sun will rise tomorrow and I’ll live to see another day.
My theme song for this stopping is none other than Stop, in the name of love (and sanity).
Stay tuned for my next post about my to-done’s.
In the meantime how about you? What do you need and/or want to stop doing?
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Now playing: The Supremes-Stop! In The Name Of Love
via FoxyTunes
Tags: 4 hour work week, change management, four hour work week, learning, new year, resolutions, stop, stop in the name of love, supremes, tim ferris, to do
January 15th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Hmm . . .stopping. That is a challenge for me . . birthright of one compelled to ‘get the job done’. I need to stop recreating things I have created. Letting things be . . . I return to the monk I met in the Ottawa Airport this past November. I feast on his words again and again ” Worry, it changes nothing; do not worry, it changes nothing. Better not to worry and have energy and life for what matters”.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Birthright can be a sticky mess no? It can make us feel compelled to stay the way we are and not stop and redirect, rest, zig zag or some other unknown possibility. And yes, worry inhales energy into a vacumn.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Hello, nice post. I just found this blog, but I will definitely bookmark it. Have a good day.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Thanks, you too. I appreciate your comment.
March 14th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
[…] to be born?" Lianne said to some of us women over mint tea earlier this year. Kelly. Ronna. Gwen. Lee-Anne. We nodded, quietly, taking it into our hearts. It was a lot to take […]