Respect your to-do list

I've talked about the benefits of having to-do lists that help you keep track of what you have to do in order to avoid wasting energy figuring out on what you should focus on next, so I'm not gonna explain that again in this article.

However, there's one thing that I should talk about, something that is quite important if you're the type of person that sometimes doesn't have limits, and sometimes doesn't have the necessary discipline to do what's needed.

Respect your to-do list.

The idea of a to-do list is to allow you to plan what tasks you should focus on the next day or even the day you create it. That means, where to start, and where to end. What task is a priority and what task could be delayed until the end of the day.

But while that is the purpose of the to-do list, we sometimes ignore it, and we do what we want despite having a well thought plan about how our day should be like. That is not how it should work.

The best way to describe how you could "respect" a to do list is to use one word: consistency.

If you're convinced that you should work on 5 tasks tomorrow, then work on 5 tasks. Don't procrastinate, don't take too many breaks, and finish those tasks. Use whatever method you want. You can use the Pomodoro method (working for 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break) or just work for hours and hours without stopping.

It doesn't matter. Just focus on finishing those 5 tasks. That's what's important.

But just as important is knowing when to stop. Respecting your to-do list goes both ways - finishing what you have to work on, and not doing anything else after that. Not always at least.

You see, it's easy to get so excited about work that you want to do it more and more. How can we be okay with writing for only one hour when there's so much to write about? How can we be happy with coding for 30 minutes when there's so much to learn? How can we be happy with reading for 45 minutes when there are so many books out there?

You can always work more, you can always make progress, you can always evolve. But you also have limitations. The to-do list you have isn't there only to show you what you should start working on, but also to show you when you should stop working.

After you're done with those 5 tasks, stop working. If you want to do some additional work, write down the amount of time you plan to invest into another productive activity. Expand your to-do list, but don't exhaust yourself. I'd love to be a robot and work all day long, but it's just not possible. We have a finite amount of energy that we get to spend each day, and overworking ourselves could easily lead to burnout.

So, respect your to-do list. Use it to know what to work on, but also where to stop. Consider it as important as your actual work, and don't let your desire to always do more exhaust you and turn you into a workaholic.