How 'To-Do Lists' Kill Your Ideas Instantly

"To-Do lists keep me from getting things done."

One day while I was taking my usual morning shower, that quoted line (above) crossed my mind, and I came to the realization that it was true.

Have you ever felt something like that?

Sometimes when we have an idea, we write the idea down because we don’t want to forget it, and later, we break down the idea into manageable pieces that we need to get done in order to accomplish the overall idea we wrote down earlier.

But, we don’t get the idea accomplished, do we?

If a thought or idea is messing in your head, it should grow in there

From my own experiences and beliefs as examples, I will start by affirming that ideas are alive, and they manifest themselves in our lives when they think we are capable of handling the completion of their purpose.

Sometimes they’re wrong.

"Ideas choose us, we don’t choose them. "

Now that I made my point simple (I’d probably create a separate post to explain deeply my idea about ideas), I have to say that when an idea already decided to penetrate in my mind, said idea thinks that I’m ready to make it happen, and by breaking down the idea on paper, I’m killing it myself.

The idea wants to live inside our brain. They don’t want to be dead in pieces, next to something that says “Go to Walmart” on a paper that has “To-Do” as the header.

"I kill the idea because I’m not allowing them to grow inside my brain as the seed they are. "

I pluck it from the root to put it on paper, as if they were simple activities to complete on a To-Do Lis” that I will surely end up forgetting, because I will be taking care of doing the things that I would really be doing in my day. These are things like doing the dishes and walking the dog, which I personally think are the things that do belong on a To-Do list.

"Cleaning up the apartment should be in your To-Do list; accomplishing your dreams shouldn’t. "

But, if I allow the idea to live inside my brain, the idea will get used to the way I work, the way I move, the way I think, and they will decide by themselves if we’re the ones to make them happen or, if we’re not, they’d simply leave. And I think that’s the reason why we don’t make ideas happen after all.

Killing the ideas

The process of killing ideas is simple and its synthesized in four simple steps:

1. Let the idea come to your mind
2. Write down the idea to avoid forgetting it
3. Break down the idea into steps for your daily To-Do List
4. Don’t get your To-Do list done and forget the idea

Avoiding killing ideas

Open your mind to this one: Think that your brain is a fertile land in which you can plant crops. It doesn’t matter what kind of crops you plant; the mind will do its thing and will grow those crops. Eventually, ideas tend to land on fertile land rich in trees made out of knowledge, instead of land full of meaningless grass that grows even if we do nothing.

Remember, the land is fertile by itself.

"Some people grow in their minds useful trees that will feed them forever, while some others choose to have useless grass. "

Once I said so, I understand that if I allow an idea to come to my mind and grow as big as a tree, they will be mature, and they will leave our head only if they have made their purpose of being accomplished, and only then.

When the idea is messing in our head for countless days and even when we sleep, we will know that the idea is ready not to leave: We’re the chosen ones, and the idea will grow.

But guess what? Ideas grow inside your brain, not on paper, so don’t write them down. And if they’re important enough, they will stay there, because unconsciously, you will keep them in there.

"If an idea is important enough for you, let them grow inside your brain; allow them to keep you from sleeping. "

By this point, the reader should be aware that, basically, ideas are important and should stay in our brain for a while.

Debug the brain

I’m not saying that the daily mundane tasks are bad. I’m saying that they shouldn’t belong in our brain; they consume space that could be used to grow ideas.

Mundane tasks like the "going to Walmart" thing should be written in the To-Do lists.

But does “going to Walmart” will increase your productivity, get you closer to your goals, or make your ideas a reality? No.

They will most likely keep you from doing so. That’s why I don’t do To-Do Lists.

To-Do Lists are not the environment for the ideas that come to us, let alone our dreams and goals.

They keep us from reaching our goals by reminding us that we need to accomplish the mundane tasks, too. (Of course, our goals need to be broken down into smaller pieces to get them done, but that’s an action plan, not a To-Do List.)

We have limited time each day, and we have to decide to do one of two things:

1. Accomplish the To-Do List
2. Accomplish our goals every day a little

One of those options is ordinary, the other one, extraordinary.

Choose to do the extraordinary. Choose to be extraordinary.