{"id":119,"date":"2018-03-08T14:26:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T03:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herrmann.com.au\/blog\/2018\/03\/08\/you-need-to-make-a-not-to-do-list-heres-why\/"},"modified":"2022-12-01T16:34:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T05:34:50","slug":"you-need-to-make-a-not-to-do-list-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/herrmann.com.au\/blog\/2018\/03\/you-need-to-make-a-not-to-do-list-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"You need to make a not-to-do list: Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]\n\t\t\t[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]\n\t\t\t\t[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]Sometimes it seems like the key to becoming more productive is creating a detailed to-do-list – especially when the number of ‘to-dos’ seems to keep growing. But what if we told you the key to productivity has less to do with addition and more to do with subtraction?\n\nIt’s not uncommon for Australian workers to wake up feeling overwhelmed. The mere thought of all that needs to be accomplished in a given day is draining. Research from the Australian Institute found that nearly two in five Australians felt that their work had a negative impact on their stress levels, another third felt that their work had a negative impact on sleep.\n\nIt’s unsurprising that so many of us feel this way. The lines between our personal and professional lives are more blurred than ever. We get chats from co-workers on our personal phones, we check our emails on weekends – we never quite shut off.\n\nWe complain about the complexity of our lives, but we also forget how much of the chaos in our lives is self-imposed. At some point, you agreed to take on all those things.\n\nLetting go of tasks demands mindfulness. It requires new ways of thinking and focused action. You can mindlessly add on to that to-do list, but you really have to sit down and think about what goes on your not-to-do list.\n

Saying ‘no’ is the key to being more productive<\/strong><\/h2>\nWarren Buffett once said: “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”\n\nOf course, saying “no” isn’t easy. We don’t want to let people down and we definitely don’t want to look like slackers.\n\nOn top of that, it’s not always easy to figure out what really deserves your attention. The key to this is having a good filter to sort through the options. Fortunately, when you put your mind to it, you can do this filtering pretty easily.\n\nFor each task or to-do list item (or for any activity that’s eating into your productivity) consider the following questions:\n

Analytical questions:<\/strong><\/h3>\n