Take Something Off Your To-Do List
It’s time to take something off of your to-do list. Note: not check it off, take it off.
Listen: We’re going into the fourth quarter of the year, one of the busiest for a lot of people. You have a lot of goals and a lot of things to do. This is a recipe for stress.
So in the interests of stress relief and simplicity, consider taking something off your list. Here are some possible places to cut.
Is there something on your list of obligations that doesn’t align with your big-picture goals and values? We talked about this in relation to aligning your finances with your values, but it’s as true for time and energy as it is for money. You could spend the time you save on something that’s more meaningful to you.
Is there something you’re doing supposedly to save or make money, but doesn’t? Some people can rock a couponing app, for example. Others spend hours adding coupons, watching the associated ads, trying to find the correct products at the store, and scanning them, only to realize later that we had spent, in the end, more (unless that’s just us). You could spend this time on something that actually makes you money.
Is there something you could automate? Maybe that means finessing your automatic payments so you aren’t spending so much time paying bills. Maybe that means enrolling in a subscription service like Grove (for household products) or Chewy (for pet care products), so you don’t have to spend time shopping, mental energy planning, or extra money on impulse purchases. Bonus: this makes it very easy to work into your monthly budget.
Is there something you do that someone else could do? Don’t turn into Cinderella’s evil stepmother or anything, but check in and make sure you’re sharing the household tasks fairly with the members of your household, and make sure you’re sharing the work tasks fairly with your coworkers. Maybe there’s an opportunity to delegate.
Is there something you could hire someone else to do? We recently hired someone to cut our lawn, after years of doing it ourselves. We didn’t enjoy it, and it took us forever. Yes, it costs $30, but it buys back a whole morning of our time we can spend on our side hustles, on household projects, or with family.
Is there something you could pause temporarily? Some subscription services let you pause for a few weeks and then restart without officially cancelling and re-enrolling. You can apply the same principle to anything in your life, though; the monthly office potluck doesn’t need you every month.
Is there something you could just not do, and the world would not end?
Is this failure? No. Stop that. You can’t do everything—you don’t have unlimited time and energy. It’s absolutely okay to prioritize the most effective, most important, and most enjoyable things, whatever that means for you.
We would love to hear your ideas for taking something off of your to-do list!
