Before I start with today’s entry, I want to celebrate for a minute. I finally finished my book last week. 209 pages of really good stuff. When I say finished, I mean version 4.2 or something like that. A relatively polished version that is ready to be edited. So, hopefully I can have a final version in a matter of weeks. If anyone knows a publisher…
Back to the post. The sixth step to a BadAss To Do List is very closely related to Step Five. Now that you know that your list consists ONLY of the important tasks in your life, you will need to be diligent about putting ALL your important tasks on your list. This might seem obvious to some of you. But almost every one of my clients mentally ‘silos’ their task into, BATDL “worthy” tasks & NOT BATDL “worthy” tasks. Each client might have a different definition for each of those silos. Regardless, it is a mistake.
The job of your BATDL is to capture ALL of the tasks you need to complete, so that they are in one centralized location. Don’t forget that, floating around in your head, is a place. You may not be leaving random scraps of paper all over your kitchen or putting Post-it notes all over you office. But when you divide your tasks between BATDL and your working memory, you are still dividing. Any task that there is any possibility of your forget, OR any task that would cause you to lose efficiency by forgetting, even for a short time, at the moment when you need to remember it need to go on your BATDL.
That voice in your head that says, “I’ll remember that. I don’t need to put that on my list.” is lying to you. Even if you do remember that task, you will waste valuable resources remembering to remember it. And you will make your BATDL less relevant to your life by having tasks that don’t require your checking the list. Lastly, you will not only say that about one task. And we all have threshold at which we can remember. You might be able to remember that one task. But what about three? Or 5?
This is a summary of the sixth chapter of my upcoming book: 10 Steps to a Badass To Do List: Task management for the ADHD brain. As always with, my blog, I value content over perfection. I am not in the habit of editing much, if at all. I hope you enjoy the content. If any of my (hopefully minor) mistakes bother you… that’s on you. Maybe try meditating?