Making "To-Stop" Lists!

You've probably heard about the all important to-do list. It’s about taking all of your important tasks and writing them down on a piece of paper. That way you can stay focused on what you are supposed to do for that day and you will get your most important work done.

Sounds like a good idea. The only problem is that to-do lists drive me crazy, and I know that they drive other people crazy to. For some strange reason, when we crazy people write down a to-do list, the entire day becomes a long slog. We feel like a slave to the list, and we resent that fact the we can be controlled by some dashes of ink on a crumbled piece of paper.

Don’t get me wrong, to-do lists can be great for some people. For those of you who are not a fan however, you may be interested in the to-stop list. Similar to the to-do list in that you are writing a list of stuff, the to-stop list differs in that you write down things that you are NOT supposed to do, rather than things that you are.

The main barrier that many people face in life is not that they don’t know what to do. Its that they have too many things to do. Distractions, interruptions and choice, will waste your time and energy and will almost guarantee that you never get done what it is that you want to do.

Creating a to-stop list means that you look at the factors that are holding you back in your life and you make a conscious effort to remove them from your everyday activities. Doing so means that you are going to be able to free up massive amounts of time and energy to do what is really important.

To create a to-stop list ask yourself, “What are the non-essential activities that I do on a daily basis?”, “What are the activities that drain my time and energy?”, “What are the activities that have no purpose in my life?”.

Creating this to-stop list is what creates real freedom in your life. A life of too many things to do is a life of worry, overwhelm, and dis-satisfaction. Creating the to-stop list means that you remove all of the unimportant tasks that you don’t need to worry or even think about. That’s what really gives you the leverage to create what you want.

Contributed by: Conner Hughes