The most important thing on our “Doing” or “To-Do” list is to take care of those things that will validate the way we do business. Business, like cluttering, isn’t about things; it’s about people.

“To-Do” lists work great—for some people. Organized people rely heavily on them. For some disorganized people, a To-Do list is the only tool they know. Putting a To-Do list in the hands of the chronically disorganized is like giving a computer to a Neanderthal. We dutifully make them, secretly believing that whatever we put on the list will magically get done by the end of the day. For us, they are more like letters to Santa.

Aside from the fact that a clutterer loses his “To-Do” list in his clutter, the name implies “ought as to.” Our natural rebelliousness flares up. “Nobody’s gonna tell me what I ought to do.” In Texas, when we say we’re “fixing to do” something, it means we’ve advanced beyond thinking about it, but aren’t ready to take action. It’s an intermediate step, something that should appeal to clutterers. “Fixing to do” something keeps us from committing to getting it done. Some people feel the same way about “To-Do” lists.
Replace your “To-Do” list with a “Doing” list. We are actively doing those things that need to be done. This little bit of semantics can change our attitude. Sure, it’s just a couple of words, but words are what make us. We engage in self-talk all the time. Psychiatrists tell us that by changing our negative self-talk to positive self-talk, we can make a first step to changing negative behaviors (we still have to take action, but that comes later). They suggest changing “I can’t” phrases to “I can” phrases. A “Doing” list is a set of actions we are taking, right now. And right now is the only time we really have.

Just changing the words won’t make any list work use them properly. We’ve all seen the people who carry 10-pound Day- Timers with “To-Do” lists that would challenge a team of mules. The more technologically advanced have replaced the paper Day-Timers with (Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). They weigh less, but carry more stuff to do. Instead of ten-pounds, they cart megabytes of things they “have” to do.
Stephen Covey, in The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People said there our lives are in quadrants. Quadrant one is urgent and important, two is not urgent but important, three is urgent, but not important, and four is neither urgent nor important. He’s a brilliant writer and his matrix is very good. I’m proposing a hybrid of that and a “To-Do” list. It should work for disorganized people better because it requires fewer decisions. By putting both long-term and short-term goals together, we can see how they mesh together. We’re going to break our business and personal life goals apart and when we have clarity about them, put them back together again. Then our job will be to make them work together.
On a legal pad, in your PDA, your contact manager or word processor, make a list of the things you want to accomplish in your business life. Five things you know about are plenty. The third, “declutter one area,” and the seventh, “the unexpected,” are absolutely necessary. They are in the order of priorities for a reason. If we put “decluttering” at the bottom, we may never get to it. Yet, that is the major issue here.