I'm Ditching My To-Do List: Here's What I'm Doing Instead
11 Jan 2025 #productivityI used to be a productivity freak with to-do lists.
At a past job, I had a notebook where I wrote down every single action I needed to finish. Small tasks, large tasks, meeting notes… Everything.
Later on, I became a plain text lover and kept my to-do list in a .txt file I edited with Notepad: a “todo.txt” file.
Same story as my notebook at my past job. Even worse. I had “todo.txt” files for work and non-work. One in my personal computer and another in my work computer. My to-do lists grew without control. I still have items in my “todo.txt” file from years ago. Oops!
But there’s something with to-do lists. They’re stressful.
Every item on our to-do lists is an item we haven’t finished and probably won’t finish either. In the meantime, they’re another source of stress.
I learned from Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher to ditch to-do lists and goals, and live by themes instead.
The theme I want to live by in 2025 is the Daily Practice: doing something for my mind, body, and spirit every day.
As part of my Daily Practice, I’m sticking to:
- A glass of water after waking up
- A workout session
- A moment of silence
- Writing 200-250 words
- Coming up with 10 ideas
- Getting rid of negativity
Few things have helped me change my life like the Daily Practice.
That Daily Practice helped me get my health and life on track after burning out. Focusing on my health brought clarity to my life last year.
Goodbye “todo.txt” file and hello Daily Practice. That’s my only rule for 2025. You should give it a try too.