Your Future is on Your To-Do List
Everyone maintains a to-do list in one form or another. In the day-to-day hustle and bustle, what we fail to realize too often is that in many respects the items we include on our to-do list have a direct impact on our future. The impact may be small on any given day, but the cumulative effect of executing and attempting to execute the tasks that make our list in the aggregate add up to how fast and how far we progress in our careers.
This behooves us to understand the importance of “stretching” ourselves. This means including items on our to-do list that aren’t necessarily do-now, haven’t been requested by anybody, and in many instances represent longer-term projects that can only be tackled a bit at a time on a daily basis. This future portion on your to-do list might prove to be the most important, fundamental shift in how to approach your daily to-do list that you have undertaken in the course of your career.
Suppose for a moment you get into that space where you are totally focused on where you want to be professionally or personally a few years out as opposed to where you are now. What projects, tasks, and activities would you be engaged in if you had achieved these loftier goals? Undoubtably, your energy and efforts would be directed in at least slightly, if not dramatically, different ways than they are now. What you have envisioned for your future state of being, your commitment to it, and the way you apply yourself on a daily basis ultimately all add up to where you are heading and the speed at which you arrive.
So, despite the hustle and bustle and all that competes for your attention during the daily hum-drum of getting things done, it makes sense to adopt the mind set and strategies of some of the most effective achievers within your own profession or industry. Despite all the current demands for your time, these people, I assure you, consistently have their eyes on a larger type of prize and find a way to make incremental progress regardless of the current challenges they face.
This behooves us to understand the importance of “stretching” ourselves. This means including items on our to-do list that aren’t necessarily do-now, haven’t been requested by anybody, and in many instances represent longer-term projects that can only be tackled a bit at a time on a daily basis. This future portion on your to-do list might prove to be the most important, fundamental shift in how to approach your daily to-do list that you have undertaken in the course of your career.
Suppose for a moment you get into that space where you are totally focused on where you want to be professionally or personally a few years out as opposed to where you are now. What projects, tasks, and activities would you be engaged in if you had achieved these loftier goals? Undoubtably, your energy and efforts would be directed in at least slightly, if not dramatically, different ways than they are now. What you have envisioned for your future state of being, your commitment to it, and the way you apply yourself on a daily basis ultimately all add up to where you are heading and the speed at which you arrive.
So, despite the hustle and bustle and all that competes for your attention during the daily hum-drum of getting things done, it makes sense to adopt the mind set and strategies of some of the most effective achievers within your own profession or industry. Despite all the current demands for your time, these people, I assure you, consistently have their eyes on a larger type of prize and find a way to make incremental progress regardless of the current challenges they face.
Jeff Davidson is "The Work-Life Balance Expert®," is a preeminent time management authority, has written 59 mainstream books, and is an electrifying professional speaker, making 806 presentations since 1985 to clients such as Kaiser Permanente, IBM, American Express, Lufthansa, Swissotel, America Online, Re/Max, USAA, Worthington Steel, and the World Bank. Jeff is Executive Director of the Breathing Space Institute; a popular speaker; and the author of numerous books, including:
- Simpler Living (Skyhorse Publishing)
- The 60 Second Innovator (Adams Media)
- Breathing Space (MasterMedia)
- Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Time (Alpha/Penguin)
Jeff is the premier thought leader on work-life balance issues and has been widely quoted in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, and USA Today. Cited by Sharing Ideas Magazine as a "Consummate Speaker," Jeff believes that career professionals today in all industries have a responsibility to achieve their own sense of work-life balance, and he supports that quest through his websites www.BreathingSpace.com and www.Work-LifeBalance.net and through 24 iPhone Apps at www.itunes.com/apps/BreathingSpaceInstitute.
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