Vishen LakhianiFounder of Mindvalley | NYT Bestselling Author | Transforming Lives Globally

Stop writing to-do lists

19 Jul 2022 · 1 min

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Speaker argues that to-do lists are detrimental to personal productivity because they lack constraints and encourage checking boxes rather than deep work. The recommended single metric is whether one did what they intended to do for the planned duration without distraction; the speaker cites studies (unspecified) claiming people who measure focused, uninterrupted work accomplish more than those who use to-do lists.

Chapters

To do lists are one of the worst things you can do for your personal productivity. If you measure your life every day by how many cute little boxes you checked off your to do list, you have already made a cardinal mistake. Why? Because to do lists have no constraints. Stop that. Measure yourself based on one metric alone, and that is did I do what I said I was going to do for as long as I said I would? Without distraction. Studies have found that people who measure themselves based on their ability to simply work without distraction, whatever it is that they do, finish more. They actually do more. They get more done than the people who keep the to do lists. Beautiful. I love that.