Long Lists are Guilt Trips

I read REWORK recently and a productivity insight I gained from the book is:

Long lists are guilt trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it.

– from: REWORK by Page 100 · Location 835

Until now, the only productivity management tool I resonated with was Getting Things Done and the part of me that I have the hardest time to implement is the weekly clean up. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to clean up my files.

This is why - my long lists were holding me back!!!

When I had to clean up my files, I would evaluate each item - the longer the list, the guiltier I felt!

Well, now with dates on every one of my list item - no more!

I can sweep items away with ease based on time - a simple metric to decide to clean up or not.

With shorter lists, I feel better - I gain momentum when I see a short list, because I see it get shorter when I get one or two done.

That’s motivating!

Now I keep short lists, especially my Next Actions list, move things off to other lists after a little while and when my Next Actions list is empty, go to those lists for work.

Short lists - so effective!