Do It Now

Following one rule has made the difference between me me feeling like I’m being crushed by the weight of my stress and me feeling on top of my to-do list.

David Allen has a book called “Getting Things Done,” and it taught me that most of the items on my to-do list didn’t need to be there.

The rule is:

If you can do it in two minutes or less, do it now.

By following this rule, I’ve learned that the things I’d typically put off are actually the easiest to accomplish. Rather than doing them right away, I used to put the smaller or less important tasks at the bottom of my list. Though this made my life easier in the moment, it also extended my to-do list. Now, if I can get a task out of the way immediately, I do. Shorter to-do list, clearer head.

I’ll give you an example. When I get home at night, there’s always an abundance of stuff in my car. A water bottle, the jacket I wore, shoes I changed out of, a wrapper from the snack I ate during my drive. It’s the end of the day, it’s dark, it’s cold, I’m hungry, and I want to leave my crap in the car. However, Next Day Claire will be so annoyed at current Claire for leaving her with yet another task to do. It takes less than two minutes, so I just empty the car out. I don’t even have to cross the task off of my to-do list because it doesn’t make it on the list in the first place.