A very important relationship
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Let’s talk about relationships. No, not about those kinds of relationships. Although over the years, in a variety of romantic relationships, I’ve learned a lot about what not to do… And a few things here and there that are probably good to do! But I digress. Maybe I’ll share my romantic relationship experience some other day. I want to talk about a very important relationship that all of us have. It could be a happy relationship, but for many people it’s a troubled one. It’s a relationship that can cause a lot of anxiety, grief, and frustration. One that can cause a deep sense of dissatisfaction, a lack of self-worth, and even existential angst. In short, it can cause incredibly amounts of stress. It’s your relationship with your to-do list. Your relationship with that list of items that lives in your to-do app, on your paper planner, or in your head. Or—yikes—is represented by a stack of unread emails. It might sound odd to think of yourself as having a relationship with your to-do list. But do you have one. What’s it like? At the most basic level: is it a happy relationship or a bad one? And digging deeper: how does your to-do list make you feel? Do you give it lots of love—only for it to treat you poorly? Do you get as much out of this relationship as you put into it? Let me not push the metaphor too far. But let me ask you something. And I’d like you to just sit with this question, if only for a minute: Assuming you don’t already… Could you have a good relationship with your to-do list? Instead of seeing your to-do list as an awful set of items that you must get through, could you see your to-dos as wonderful things that you get to do? Could you see the list as just a tool that helps you decide what’s most deserving of your precious time? They say the key factor that determines whether a romantic relationship lasts happily is the partners’ willingness and skill to navigate conflict. Maybe it’s worth putting in a little effort to improve your relationship with your to-do list, too? (Let me know if you’d like to know how.) |
Peter Akkies
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