I’m not a fan of to-do lists.
A to-do list just lists tasks. It tells you what to keep busy with and says nothing about what any of it is for. So I keep an achieve list instead.
Wallace D. Wattles puts it bluntly. It’s in chapter 12 of The Science of Getting Rich, the chapter he called Efficient Action:
Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day.
Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich (1910), chapter 12
Read on and he’s careful to add a warning. He doesn’t want you overworking, or rushing to cram as many things as you can into the shortest possible time. You’re not even meant to try to do tomorrow’s work today. What counts for him is how well each thing gets done.
I’d add one more thing. Doing everything you can today doesn’t mean you never switch off.
The number one thing, start to finish
For me it means this. Work out the number one most important thing you need to achieve, then get it done. Keep going until it’s finished. Work start to finish, and let the task tell you when you’re done instead of the clock.
If there’s time left after that, ask yourself, “Now what?” What’s the next most important thing you must achieve? Then go and do that one.
Five questions for an achieve list
These are the questions I ask myself instead of writing out a list of jobs:
- What do I want to achieve?
- What needs to get done?
- What are the results?
- What has to happen to create that result?
- What part can I play?
Sometimes the answer is a result that can’t happen in a day. However many hours you squeeze in, however many people you get to help, it’ll take longer. That’s fine. It’s about being realistic about what you can achieve in the time you’ve got, and spending your minutes on the actions that shift the needle.
Wattles makes a similar point about starting from the business you’ve got, which I wrote about in Act Where You Are.
I like to think of it as dancing your way through the task one beat at a time. You keep moving forward. You feel the momentum. And you get a sense of pride that you’re making a difference and doing something worthwhile.
My tagline for about ten years has been “Done beats perfect.” Get it done to the best of your ability in the moment. You can always improve it later, but you can’t edit a blank page.
