What’s that, a list? Yep and simply, it’ll sort out your life.
Always write a list. I consider myself a creative, hence I used to resist creating lists, but in the increasingly digitally distractive, lots-to-do-world, they’ve become invaluable for planning.
Personally, they create a tangible promise to myself to accomplish several tasks floating around my head. But it’s also a way to reframe thoughts and to weed out what’s important and what isn’t, before crystallising the to-dos.
There’s a game I play with students and clients. If you’re stuck on an idea or mentally constipated ( and who isn’t today) find someone to talk to loudly. That is don’t internalise those thoughts. Something strange happens when you have a problem and you start speaking to someone who listens. You often solve the problem yourself.
Alternatively when journalists get stuck on a story, I request they turn to a colleague and let them simply ask, “What’s the story?” The brain goes into survival mode attempting to operate at its most efficient. “Ok what’s the story?” The person then revises their approach. By the third time of asking the brain has become the equivalent of the “The Patellar reflex” — the knee jerk reaction. It’s instinctive. Lists do the same for me.
There’s a whole science behind doodles and lists in books like Futurecasting, Designing your life, and Getting things Done. In the latter author David Allen recounts how a senior manager referred to to-do lists as “an amorphous blob of undoability”. In part because the lists laid out as: “Mom”, “Bank”, “Doctor” could create more anxiety from not being detailed enough. Er, what was I supposed to say to Mom?
For me they’re a loadstar. That’s what I would like to achieve and ward me away from distractions.
My today’s list
1. Storyboard/ Write up curriculum
2. Read up on Breaking News.
3. Reply to think tank International editor
4. Get back to Business supporter
5. Mark dissertations.
6. Rework Viewmagazine.tv front cover.
7. Contact/ write to contributors for new tech Mag
8. Follow up on two orgs (Film & BBC) head I met.
#business #film #tech #students #like #gettingthingsdone #mode #creative
