Brainhack

1 Make a Done List

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

Zig Ziglar

Before you read this, I want you to leaf through your work diary.

Is there anything inspiring in there? Were you impressed by how much you've achieved?

I know when I look through old work diaries, all I find are lists of meetings and to-do lists.

Even on your phone or laptop, there are endless productivity apps enticing you in to make to-do lists in new and different ways.

The trouble with to-do lists, is I don't think they make us any more productive. I don't think they excite and stimulate our minds to want to get things done.

Usually we don't finish them anyway, which immediately has a negative effect.

Now I'm not saying we should do away with to-do lists. We all need reminders of what we've got to do. What I'm saying is, they serve a useful purpose of reminding us of things we need to do, but they're not actually going to make us more productive.

What you need is a done list. Seeing what you've actually achieved will spur you on. Of course, you may look back and think how little you have achieved, but hopefully this will also spur you on even more.

One of the dangers of to-do lists is we think we're being productive because we're ticking things off a list. But how many of those things you're ticking off are things you truly value? The benefit ...