The List of Doom

How do I move myself to the next step?

Looking at my List of Doom at work with its 390-odd uncompleted tasks, I find myself strangely unmotivated to do any of them. Yes, they are important and yes, they sit there silently staring at me from the computer screen, but their impact on me seems to bounce off.

On the one hand, this task list has been a great activity: for the first time in my work life (at least, perhaps my real life as well) I have a single location of everything that I have to do. Have a free minute? No problem - just consult the List of Doom and let it tell you what the next steps should be.

On the other hand, I have never had a greater categorization of the trivialities that consume my day than now. Looking at my list, I can see the things that consume my working life and realize how (in many cases) pointless they are. Release of documents? There will be more tomorrow. Training plans? I'll get them done, but then I have to audit - and then, is there any guarantee it will make an difference in how people work?

But it does bring up a really good point: do I have a List of Doom for my personal life?

The reality is this: like the List or hate it, it has given me (for the first time in my life) a metric by which I can evaluate what I'm doing and how I'm doing in terms of what I need to accomplish. My work life is more organized for it (better, I'm not willing to say).

But what about my personal life? What about all those other things I'd like to do? Yes, I understand that a personal life is not as conveniently timed as work, but it none the less obeys the same laws of accomplishment as anything else: don't do anything, don't get anything done.

As I said, it's not pleasant to go into work and see everything that remains undone- but at least I know what is undone and what I need to do.

If I treated my personal life in the same fashion, what could I accomplish?