How am I getting on with the Predictive To Do list which I wrote about on Saturday?
The answer is amazingly well.
Today is the fourth day in which I have used this form of to do list, and on the first three days I completed every item on the list with great ease. Today at 3 p.m. I have only a few small items left.
You’ll recall that the to do list is written in answer to the question “What do I actually think that I will do today?” What I realised very quickly was that asking the question changes the reality. In other words, if I write down the answers to the question, then I will have a very different day from what would happen if I just allowed the day to happen.
You might think that asking a question like this would result in very little getting done. But in fact the opposite has been the case. I have got more done than normal - including some very serious pieces of work which I had been putting off.
What’s more, I’ve done all this without looking at the to do list. Once I’ve written the list, I’ve just got on with what’s in my head. Since the list reflects what I expect to do, by and large that’s what I’ve done - virtually automatically. I’ve found it useful to check the list at lunchtime, just to remind myself what’s left, and also towards the end of the working day.
I’m also becoming aware that the principle behind this list can be used in a whole variety of ways. But more on that later.