To Do and Ta Da

Image by Aaron Burden

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” – Alan Watts

Isn’t it funny how we can make things more complicated than they need to be sometimes? How easy it is to conflate our workload with our purpose in life, as though somehow, they are one and the same? And then, how we can let the shape of our to-do lists govern our view of ourselves and our day-to-day lives?

In a society where productivity is lauded, and even pushed, it’s easy to lose ourselves in the seemingly never-ending task lists on the way to this or that goal. It’s also easier to berate ourselves for “how far we still have to go” or “how much we still have to get done” than it is to celebrate what we’ve actually accomplished.

Image by Michaela St

It’s easy to get bogged down with to-do or should-do items. I know my own lists seemed to be ever growing for a while, and in the face of “all that stuff” that needed to get done, I’d sometimes find myself teetering on the verge of overwhelm (and consequently procrastigaming or procrasticleaning rather than actually doing the things on my official lists).

I’ve had to remind myself on more than one occasion that overwhelm, like so many other thoughts, is a choice. There is much beyond our control – like a lot beyond our control. Most things actually. Our thoughts though? Those are on us. We have control over what we think (and out thoughts direct our actions). As Marcus Aurelius so beautifully put it:

“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.”

Since my mind kept spiraling around thoughts of all the “stuff I needed to get done,” and the fact that I didn’t have the bandwidth for most of it, I knew I needed to find a new way of being with things to get out of that unhelpful cycle.

Last year, at the top of the calendar year, I purposely made two changes to my flow – just as an experiment – that have since become part of my day-to-day ops, and have fundamentally changed my relationship with my “productivity.” I call them the To-Do Menu and the Ta-Da List.

First, I re-wrote my to-do list like one big fat menu. It wasn’t pretty either. In fact, with all the items, it was more like one of those menus you’d see at one of those restaurants that can’t figure out what it wants to be and has so many options you can’t quite decide what you actually want, so you end up just ordering a burger or a salad because they’re known entities. I put like items together by life area (project related, business related, house related, etc.), and started treating my to-do list like a menu rather than a taskmaster, choosing with agency. Get to, not have to. This seemingly simple shift led to some nearly magical things for me.

Instead of doing the usual tasks because they were there and needed to get done (much like going with the burger or salad just because they’re familiar regulars), I found myself venturing out and going for other options (that also needed to get done, but I usually skipped or put on another list for another day), and surprisingly, having fun doing it.

By treating my to-do list like a menu, and actually taking my bandwidth into account along with my current capacity, curiosity, and available time as I approached “the menu” of options, it’s made choosing what to do – and actually getting it done – much simpler, and much more fun.

Image by Samuel Clara

It started with having amuse-bouches of housekeeping, and tiniest tapas of administrative tasks and went from there. Some days I’m deep in a complex entrée of project management, and others, I may be savoring a sweet treat of a self-care related item. Regardless of the task or the life area I’m working on, over time all of the things add up, no matter the “portion size” at the time of doing it. I’ve accomplished incredible amounts of work, and with this method, choosing from “the menu” of to-do options, none of it has felt like a slog. 

To-Do list as a menu is now fully integrated into my life, and I doubt I’ll go back to my old ways of being with any of those tasks. Although, I do still begin every list (menu) with “Make list” so I can immediately cross something off when I’ve finished creating the list/menu because I’m all about the wins. Which brings me to the second shift – the Ta-Da List.

This one isn’t as involved as the To-Do Menu with regard to organization, in fact, it’s super straight-forward. I literally opened a blank document and titled it “Ta-Da List”, then I typed the month in bold, and started bullet points beneath for things as I accomplished them. Some are directly related to the To-Do Menu (finished that draft, laid those vocals, sent that email, filed that data, etc.), and others are just wins in general (not checking something off the other list) that are worth celebrating. Whenever I complete something ta-da worthy, it goes on the Ta-Da List. It doesn’t matter if it’s “scheduled dentist appointment” or “navigated tricky conversation with mom” – if I did it, it gets logged there.

Heck, I’ve even put “cooked dinner at home” as a win, because after a week of takeaway, it absolutely was. Alongside completing action items from my to-do menu, I’ll also ta-da myself for things like connecting with friends, getting stuff done, trying new things…

The list itself isn’t shiny or glamorous, but man, is it amazing for those days when my inner saboteur is working over-time with the broken records around productivity, timelines, and “should.” The Ta-Da List is legitimately the very best STFU to any part of my brain that thinks I’m somehow not doing “enough” because it’s right there in writing that I am. I have. And it’s also evidence I can use to pave the way for even more to come.

My Ta-Da List from last year was over thirty pages long.

So far, I’m already at close to five pages this year (since January), and I’ve done it all with the appetizer and dessert size portions I’ve been rocking from my To-Do menu (why, yes, I did finish that draft, update that metadata, schedule tree trimming, and get my biz tax documents ready to go and turned in. Boom. Badass. Go me. Ta-Da!).

The beauty of the To-Do Menu and Ta-Da List is that they’re entirely customizable. Just like with choosing our thoughts or how we want to feel, we get to decide what goes on each list. We get to choose what is important enough to make the menu, and what gets counted as a ta-da. I hope if you try out this method, you’ll be generous with your ta-da list because there really are no small wins, only wins – and they all add up.

Here’s to playing with productivity in useful and uplifting ways. To emphasizing our choice and agency in where we place our focus, and to celebrating the wins with every step, turning our to-dos into ta-das. Have fun with it!