I must admit, I love making to-do lists. However, I am not great at crossing things off my list.
For three reasons that I am unapologetic about:
👉The Mess:
My to-do list is real messy. It's an amalgamation of things that are important or urgent, tasks that are unpleasant but must be done, some others that are good-to-do but no one beyond me cares if not done. Some that have immediate pay-off, some that are long term. And many more such slices and shades.
👉The Randomness:
As much as I like to plan my days, random things routinely come up that take priority. Like an interesting conversation with a colleague, a critical but unanticipated business deliverable, a call from an old friend, a fire drill at the office, or a sudden visit to the dentist.
👉The Finite-ness:
My time is finite. I have still not figured out how to stretch my day beyond 24 hours.
How do I defend being unapologetic about these?
Because I am a human who understands that:
✅Humans are messy and unstructured. It comes from a unique capability that homo sapiens have over other living beings - imagination.
✅Randomness and serendipity are good. They trigger imagination and innovation - super powers that machines don't have, yet.
✅The value of humans is in driving outcomes, not output. There is a subtle difference between the two. Machines can produce output, only humans can drive outcomes.
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With this ideology, how do I get any real work done, you may ask:
Well, Pareto principle is a real thing; in most endeavours, 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of effort.
I do make sure that I complete that 20% from my list everyday, to sleep peacefully at night.
#work #life #todolist #imagination #innovation