Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to get it out of your head. That is,
Speaker 1: write down anything you're not going to do, write this minute.
Speaker 1: In a previous episode, I talked about keeping your to
Speaker 1: do list short. The reason to do this is that
Speaker 1: there's no point putting something on a to do list
Speaker 1: and then not doing it. It's just as undone as
Speaker 1: if you'd never put it on the list in the
Speaker 1: first place. Only now you feel bad too. Better to
Speaker 1: have expectations meet reality. The only way to guarantee that
Speaker 1: happens is to keep your list short. I mentioned that
Speaker 1: a lot of people really resist this idea. That's because
Speaker 1: we're responsible for more than three to five things in
Speaker 1: the universe. So what do you do with the rest
Speaker 1: of this stuff? How do you keep it from clogging
Speaker 1: up your brain? How do you make sure you'll remember
Speaker 1: it in the future. Well, As Before Breakfast listener Holly
Speaker 1: put it in an email to me, you get it
Speaker 1: out of your head. Holly wrote in her note that
Speaker 1: while she was going through some very stressful times in
Speaker 1: her personal life, she began writing down various images and
Speaker 1: memories that came to her, so she'd have them somewhere
Speaker 1: but wouldn't have to dwell on them. She later realized
Speaker 1: that this process was useful for things beyond her ruminations.
Speaker 1: It was a good idea for managing to do lists
Speaker 1: in general. So now I have a small notebook and
Speaker 1: each page has a subject line, she writes, And on
Speaker 1: that page, I create a list of things I need
Speaker 1: to remember, things that I need to do, and things
Speaker 1: I want to do. This takes them out of my
Speaker 1: head and into a place I can look over several
Speaker 1: times a day to see what I can tick off.
Speaker 1: That is, when she finds herself with some extra time.
Speaker 1: She noted that these lists also hold her accountable for
Speaker 1: steps toward bigger projects. It shows progress, it shows achievements,
Speaker 1: and it shows goals. She says, So what kind of
Speaker 1: pages does Holly have in her notebook? She sent me
Speaker 1: a partial list with all of them. She has pages
Speaker 1: for tracking holidays taken at work, notes for her lawyer,
Speaker 1: notes for her doctor, notes about money general category. Here,
Speaker 1: she says, I put things I need to do but
Speaker 1: having gotten around to, such as getting the cat microchip,
Speaker 1: to meeting up with so and so, etc. She has
Speaker 1: a page for her podcast, a page devoted to holiday destinations,
Speaker 1: page devoted to therapy that might encompass things to cover
Speaker 1: in sessions or exercises she needs to do, shopping lists, makeup.
Speaker 1: She says, I keep a list of the shades and
Speaker 1: brands I love so I don't forget, a destination, bucket list,
Speaker 1: a list for her car which includes general info and
Speaker 1: renewal dates things like that, a Christmas gift ideal list,
Speaker 1: a dream journal, birthday list, social appointments, etc. Holly writes
Speaker 1: that this may seem like a lot, but each time
Speaker 1: I need to make room in my head or life,
Speaker 1: or I'm worried I'll forget a date or a piece
Speaker 1: of information, I just flip to that page and note
Speaker 1: it down. It has given me back control and allowed
Speaker 1: me to stop procrastinating. What Holly discovered is that just
Speaker 1: because we're not going to do something right now doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we don't want to know about it or think
Speaker 1: about it in the future. So, for instance, I just
Speaker 1: made a list in my planner that I'm calling this
Speaker 1: summer fun list. These are things I want to do
Speaker 1: over the summer that makes summer feel like summer to me,
Speaker 1: I put things like eating ice cream at days in
Speaker 1: Ocean Grove on the New Jersey Shore, going to a
Speaker 1: Phillies game, going to a beer garden, and listening to
Speaker 1: music outdoors. None of these things are on my to
Speaker 1: do list for tomorrow or even for the next week.
Speaker 1: But as I'm going into summer weekends and thinking about
Speaker 1: what I might like to do, I'll have this list
Speaker 1: to look back on. I also have an ongoing list
Speaker 1: of home projects that we should probably do at some point.
Speaker 1: If I put clean out the closet on my to
Speaker 1: do list for this weekend, well, it probably wouldn't get
Speaker 1: done because it's a full weekend, and then I'd feel bad.
Speaker 1: But at least now it's somewhere, and when I do
Speaker 1: feel like I have some time and want to tackle
Speaker 1: a project, I know which ones I've identified as being
Speaker 1: worth doing. I'd also definitely recommend keeping a TBR list
Speaker 1: that stands for to be read. Anytime you hear a
Speaker 1: good book recommendation, don't assume you'll remember it. You won't
Speaker 1: remember it. Put it on the TBR list. Then when
Speaker 1: you find yourself stuck with a weight somewhere, you can
Speaker 1: look at the list, order the ebook on your phone
Speaker 1: and start reading it in your eReading app. Our brains
Speaker 1: can do all sorts of amazing things, but remembering stuff
Speaker 1: we need to do in the future is not really
Speaker 1: one of those things. Or worse well, remember the thing
Speaker 1: at a time when we can do nothing about it.
Speaker 1: I really should call my accountant about that tax issue
Speaker 1: is just not a helpful thing to wake up and
Speaker 1: mull over at three am, So get it out of
Speaker 1: your head. Then your head will have room for all
Speaker 1: sorts of other amazing ideas. I'd love to hear about
Speaker 1: the lists you make. Do you make a lot of them,
Speaker 1: like Holly, or just a few? Do you keep them
Speaker 1: in a notebook or an app or somewhere online. You
Speaker 1: can email me with your ideas at Before Breakfast Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters thanks so much,
Speaker 1: should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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