Workout:  Organize Your To-Do List

Spend 15-30 minutes on an initial brain dump, getting things out of your mind and onto a task list.  Set a timer.  Don’t feel you need to order or arrange or prioritize anything just dump the contents in your head onto a sheet of paper, a spreadsheet or digital note taker.  Categories may help in the emptying process, however, so feel free to come up with tasks from Home, Work, Finances, Email, Phone Calls, Family/Friends, etc.

The next step, according to David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, is to sort your list into “Tasks” or “Projects”, those tasks that can be grouped together or are related/dependent on each other.  Often the way the task first appears on our list is in a form that is not “actionable.”  This may require some re-writes on our part.  For example, my list may include “work on the yard” – which is a good thing according to my wife .  The problem is that “work on the yard” is a multi-task “Project” that I will need to break down into actionable tasks such as “buy gas for mower” and “rake the leaves” and “get the weed-eater back from my friend”.

As your working through your list you may find somethings are not really tasks that you can do or are related to things that don’t belong to you.  Scratch those out.

Now the next step for this workout is – nothing.  You don’t have to do any of the tasks, really.  Toss the list if you like.  Do what you want with it.  Guilt free.  You may find that in the act of creating the list you generated some enthusiasm for acting on items on the list.  Do those or don’t.  It’s up to you.

Some people find that a list like this brings a sense of order and peace.  Just seeing what you have to do on paper, nicely arranged and displayed, provides a sense of freedom.

You may find that the list has done just the opposite and it has increased your anxiety and stress.  Then your next task is to identify the task or tasks that are causing the stress.  Can you do anything about it?  If no, than your stress will do nothing for you.  If yes, ask yourself what is the very next thing you could do towards completing the task.  Then, because you have stress, do it and release it.  Then move to the next thing you could do, do it and release that.

The place where we want to be is acting upon that which can be acted upon and accepting that which we must accept.

In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means:  education and physical activity.  Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together.  With these two means, man can attain perfection. – Plato

Workout:  Challenge yourself physically

There’s such a strong connection between the condition of our body and the condition of our soul.  Seeing changes in the body is sometimes much easier.  This week take advantage of the link and do something physically demanding – at whatever level you are.  If you are a runner than add some distance.  If the only time you’ve broken a sweat recently is when the AC was broken than take a daily 10 minute walk around the block or do 10 pushups.  Look for and feel the relationship between your body and soul.