Creating the best to-do list you’ve ever made – pragmatic future design

There are so many reasons why it’s good to create a to-do list which really nails the things you can do this week to keep your goals on track. The very process puts you in a creatively thinking mind-set which helps you get a clearer more focused idea of how things will be when you achieve your goals. It also helps to see if you’ve been procrastinating too much, or if there are areas of your life in which you have not yet made changes you really need to make.

 

In this article I’m going to fully run through the process involved in creating an extremely high quality to-do list. One which not only gives you a list of very important things to-do, but also one which may answer some questions you still have about how to go about achieving your goals this week! The end-product will be a basic list of things you can, and will, do this week to ensure your continued movement towards all the things you really desire but have not yet brought into your life.

 

 

 

 

 

To begin with it’s useful to have a reminder of what exactly you want to achieve this year. If you haven’t really thought about this before – well then that’s something you really need to spend some time on immediately.

 

Write just your three top things that you’re going to achieve this year. Write in the first person and as if you already have those things in your life right now. If you feel your mind-set begin to shift so that you’re thinking in those terms – good, because you can make excellent use of that visionary foresight. If you don’t feel that, don’t worry you can work on this without it.

 

For this part of the process it’s not so important to be specific – but if you feel you can be specific then be specific. Just list your top three. If you can only think of one or two that’s not a problem – but if you really only have one major thing you want to achieve this year you should probably be a little more ambitious ;)

 

Example:

 

“

“

 

Notice the contrast in specifics between 1 and 2 in the example. 2 is more open, 1 is more exact. It is definitely much more preferable to be more exact if you have – the more exact your desires are the more powerful the gravitational well at the heart of your soul will pull those things into your life. However, you should only be more exact if you are certain about the exactness.

 

For example, if we had “2. I am loving the sun, sand, and Spanish lifestyle in Spain.” then that would be more exact right? But maybe we don’t yet have enough focus on this idea just yet to make that commitment. Like-wise, maybe we’re clear that 1. is “I am self-employed and earning enough to comfortably upkeep my lifestyle.” but we’re not ready to place time constraints or values on that  – just yet.

 

 

Now you want to think about the things which are congruent with your goals, but you have not as of yet implemented in your life. In other words, what are the major differences between the you who has achieved those things, and the you right now.

 

You should think about all three of your aforementioned achievements, and you want to be writing at least 20 points. You may find yourself stall occasionally, but push-on and make sure you get a good number of points. Don’t worry about exactness, or what you’re writing. However, as before, write in the first person as if you’re writing from the perspective of the you who has already achieved these things.

 

Example:

 

“

“

 

These observations can be anything from your appearance, to your tastes, to your style. For example you could have something as seemingly inane as “I don’t drink white-wine any more, now I prefer red.” The thing is, this is not inane at all, it’s important.

 

You need to bring everything in your life into the correct vibration for these dreams to manifest. I understand this sentence might sound a little new-age with terms like “vibration”, but these terms are useful for explaining how this stuff works.

 

So even note the inane details like “I have a tan.” or “I eat lots of seafood.” You want all the differences you can think of between the you who has achieved, and the you who has not yet.

 

 

Now take a fresh sheet of paper or open a new document. You want to be able to see the list you’ve just made, and also be able to write on a fresh sheet.

 

Write “What could I do THIS WEEK to make this thing real NOW?” and consider that for every single point on your list of observations.

 

You may start off with something vague, or it may be exact. With every point you want to get to the most exact action possible – a definite action which will with certainty take you towards that thing becoming real.

 

So after you’ve wrote something, then thing “how can I do this?” and write the answer, and then, if you can, think again “how can I do this?” and then write the answer. Each time, indent your answer more so you can see the process doing on. You only need to carry this on until you have a clear idea of what you can do for each point.

 

Occasionally you will get a buzz of “Oh my god! This is something I really should do!” and for those ones put an exclamation mark at the end of them.

 

For others you may feel a little confused, you may not be able to come up with something exact but just a general idea. You may feel like those wants need more investigation but they are not clear enough for you to know what to do. For those ones, place a question-mark at the end of them.

 

You will probably realise that what you need to do for some of the points is exactly the same thing you need to do for some of your other points. That’s not a problem, just reference the other point by writing “The same as point 3.”

 

Sometimes you may think of multiple things you can do. That’s no problem, just write multiple things. Write those at the same level of indentation as the other things on that branch so you can see that they are relating to the same thing, rather than being more exact versions of it which you’ve discovered by asking how questions.

 

Remember it’s what COULD I do… that doesn’t mean to start with it’ll be the thing you actually do. Notice in the example below how 1. the first option is “Quit my job” but that’s not what 1. actually ends up being when we ask a few “How?” questions.

 

Notice also how for 2. there’s a number of options at a third level of indentation. These are examples of multiple things which can be done to achieve the same result. Notice the exclamation mark next to one of those points – indicating that it’s associated with a powerful positive feeling.

 

Notice the question-mark by 4, this is to notate that it needs some more thought.

 

Example:

 

“

“

 

Remember all the rules. The indentation is important for showing the ideas you've gone into more depth with, and viewing the options you have available for each point.

 

You're trying to be as exact as possible about things you can actually do this very week. But it's even more important to be certain that the things you've written are expressing what you really need to do. If that means sacrificing a little detail for now, that's ok – because dealing with that can be part of our to-do list :)

 

 

Once you have done this for all 20+ observations on your previous list, look over it and pick out the top-ten things for you to do. You can determine which are the most important by which ones have the most feeling/emotion associated with them. They will most likely be exclamation marked, but sometimes may also be a question marked line.

 

If you choose any question-marked lines then what you will be writing on your to-do list for that point is that you’re going to spend some time FIGURING OUT what you need to do to make that thing happen.

 

What you’re finally left with is a list of things which you know which certainty will take you towards being the person you want to be, the person who has achieved what you want to achieve. On top of this final-product, you also have engaged your mind in a focusing process which subconsciously is getting your head into the right mind-space to really achieve your goals.

 

For example:

 

“

…etc”

 

Well that’s the hard part over with, all you have to do now is actually do these things. No problem, right? ;)