What is your goal? How this exercise helps to clarify that...

[Dien Rice]

I have a bad habit with my "To Do" lists...

They tend to grow.. and grow... and grow...

One thing I realized is, with everything in my To Do list... I'm not always thinking, WHY is that there?

In other words, what GOAL am I trying to accomplish with that task I've written down?

Often, I haven't really thought about it!

So now, I'm trying to get into the habit of always thinking... What is my GOAL when I plan to do this item?

It helps me to clarify what my priorities are... And therefore, which To Do list items I should tackle first.

Looking at my present To Do list, I noticed a lot of items are related to HEALTH... Things I'm trying to do to sustain or improve my health. That's definitely a worthy goal. Some people say your health is the most important goal, because without good health, you can't accomplish anything else...

A lot of items on my To Do list I've now noticed are favors for friends. My friends ask me to do things, and I often say "yes"... Often these are things these friends can't do for themselves (because they don't have the skills, contacts, or knowledge required). I guess my goal is to maintain a good friendship... However, I should realize, that I should not prioritize these in front of my most important goals (as often I do)...

Of course, other items on my To Do list have the goal to make MONEY... Which is very important. Without money, you end up not only hurting yourself, but those who rely on you as well...

Some items are related to FAMILY... That is, to the goal of keeping good family relations.

Other items are to AVOID PROBLEMS down the road. For example, paying bills... Not paying them now usually means more problems later. Another example is, renewing my domain names now means I won't lose them later...

Other items are a bit less pressing, and are to do with longer-term goals. For example, I would love to learn more languages. I have some "To Do" items related to that... It is good to clarify that the goal for these items is for that long term goal...

There are also a few items where the GOAL for that task is a bit murky. I have to think through those more, and either figure out what the ultimate goal is, or delete the task!

I think keeping it clear in your mind what your ultimate GOAL is for your various "To Do" list tasks will help you stay motivated, and also help you to sort through and prioritize them...

One thing this has helped me with is to realize how many items on my "To Do" list are to help my friends! I didn't realize I was such a helpful fellow... However, I was giving those tasks equal priority with everything else. I really should not do that... For example, I should definitely prioritize my health over helping my friends (without my health, I can't help anybody)...

I hope this helps!

Best wishes,

Dien

P.S. This relates to some of Gordon's recent posts...

P.P.S. Many times in the past, Gordon has also mentioned that people often can't answer the simple question, "What do you want?" I guess this relates to that too, but perhaps from a different angle...