Tag Archives: todo list

Todo-lists vs. the creative habit

Posted on by

It happened to me on several occasions that I mixed up todo-list style working mode and creativity working mode, although every single time I was convinced that I did things the right way. In order to boost my creative output I have put several creative items on my daily todo-list and hoped that somehow getting things done and creativity would magically match. Not so! What happened, in fact, was that while checking off my todo-items I would postpone the creative items on the list. They would be postponed to the next day and then to next and so on. Since I have scheduled different creative endeavors on different days, you might already guess what happened. I got my regular tasks done but all the creative items kept piling up. Looking at this pile did not really inspire me to do anything creative at all. In fact, it scared me off. To conclude, during these experiments I haven’t achieved anything creative at all.

In the meantime, however, I have come up with a different strategy to get my regular things done and increase my creative output as well.

Continue reading →

How to get more done – chunk it down

Posted on by

Being a todo-list aficionado, I keep items for every aspect of my life on my lists. Even the enjoyable things, like painting, poetry, or writing prose. In fact, exactly because they are enjoyable but require overcoming an initial barrier to start, I found it very useful to have them on my todo-list. If I put an item like “write a poem” on my todo-list, the probability that I actually start writing it is significantly higher than when I just plan to do something nice after work. It works similarly well for sports or any other endeavor. Besides, there is a double mental satisfaction to have a creative product finished and to strike the item through on the todo-list or mark it as done. However, there is also a downside to the list-business, as I have noticed the last couple of months. Having between 20 and 30 items on my daily todo-list, I will emotionally pick always the ones, which seem to be least trouble. These are most likely not the ones, which are most important or urgent to do. If there is an item, which indicates the slightest doubt about how to do it or poses a certain level of difficulty then it is postponed indefinitely, unless, of course, there is time pressure from a deadline. Thus, at the end of the day, I will have done maybe 15-20 easy items and will have left the hard ones on the list for the next day, that is, I removed the sand, but left the rocks.

Continue reading →