not-to-do – From the desk of Adam Thomas

Those Pesky Things, Write Them Down

A Not-to-Do list can save you overhead and time.

Now that you know that, let’s spend some time building one.

Exercise:

Write the following:

What are three things that you, in any circumstance, do not do? Think zero tolerance.
Why do you try not to do that thing?
What happens after you do that thing, how do you feel when you lose?

If you typed it, print it out or write it again by hand.

Place it somewhere that is visible to you, and remind yourself of those things daily.

If something else strikes you, add it to the list.

I love checklists.

How easy is it to follow through when you don’t have to use any mental overhead to remember?

That’s why I love checklists. They eliminate “mental overhead” (energy spent maintaining your head space) by giving you a place to hold information in a static way.

This is important because our brain isn’t a computer, and things slip through the cracks. The list we hold in our head is dynamic because we are. Writing them down keeps them static. (Things being static isn’t always a bad thing…)

Knowing that, have you thought about having a list that you say “no” to?

The concept exists, and it’s called a “not-to-do list.”

The idea is simple: write down the things you don’t do. Keep it around to remind you to save yourself from the “mental overhead.” This way, you will hold yourself accountable to this way of doing things so it becomes native to you.