The To Don't List

Delving into the riches of books that have wandered their way into my possession thanks to birthday gifts, I have spent the weekend in a semi-comatose state taking in the joy of reading.

Among the books that I purchased was Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working by Craig Groeschel. I originally heard the author on Dave Ramsey's show; he sounded interesting enough so I got the book - and let's be honest, anything with weird in it probably speaks to me on some level.

The book is broken down into five sections: Time, Money, Relationships, Sex, and Values (nice, because it allows one to re-read it multiple times for different things). The one that called out to me in particular this time was, well, time.

What would you do, Groeschel asks, if God gave you another hour a day, or even an extra day of the week? Would you invest it in things that matter - or would you, like myself, probably just find more things to do with the time that I was not doing now. Unimportant things. Things that probably don't matter.

It's not that we lack time, says Groeschel - we have enough time to do all that God has commanded us to do. It's that we don't have a greater awareness of the time we have - when, he asks, do we have time to be in the present moment?

Among his other suggestions, Groeschel recommends a "To Don't" list - a list put together by us consciously which categorizes the things which we we won't do:

"While normal people continue to add items to their to-do list, maybe you should do something weird instead: start a to-don't list. Just this year alone, I've dropped seven things that I normally do to make room for those important things I thought didn't have time to do. I'd like to challenge you to stop reading and start your to-don't list. Maye you should do something weird and write down at least three activities in your life that you're going to drop. Put something down and let it go. (p.34)"

Clever folks will recognize this as a different version of Stephen Covey's Urgent versus Important concept, Putting First Things First. In fact, it's the negative reverse image of this: instead of identifying what is truly important, start with identifying what is truly not important. Add it to the list.

Having read this, what's on my list? I'm embarassed to say I have no idea yet. I'm the worst sort of time manager: everything I have on my list is "important" and needs to be done.

But for whom? For what?

Yesterday, for example, I made time to do two activities which of late have been sadly lacking in my own life: music on the harp and writing. In both cases they proved again to me how wonderful they are in the fact that in both cases, I simply lost track of time doing them. Things such as these, that cause you to lose time, are the things of the heart that need to be done.

Which is fine for a Sunday. But what about Monday through Friday, in the midst of the important "work" I have to do? The reality is if those are important, I will find other things which can go onto the "To Don't" list.

It's not that we don't have the time, it's just that we don't have the time to do everything. What's on your "To Don't" list?