How to Purge Your To-Do List ADHD Style

How To Purge Your To-Do List ADHD Style
By Dana Rayburn, Adult ADD Coach

ADDed Success is ADD Coach Dana Rayburn's monthly newsletter about living successfully with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Learn more about ADD coaching for adults at http://www.danarayburn.com.

Welcome to ADDed Success!

To-do lists are necessary evils for people with ADD. We need to-do lists to manage life's details and remember our ideas and commitments. Yet lists have a habit of getting out of control.

Over time to-do lists get clogged with old, undone stuff. Overloaded lists are hard to use. Worse, they drain your energy by reminding you of what you haven't done.

That's why I suggest that you occasionally give your list a good cleaning. Purge it of all the old stuff you meant to do but didn't.

Odd as it sounds, removing something from your list may be the best way to get it done! When my clients purge their to-do lists they become re-energized and magically tackle some of the tasks they had put off.

The hard part is letting go of your old ideas and commitments. Trusting that other, more exciting opportunities will take their place.

Are you ready for a fresh start? Let's purge your to-do list!

To start, hunt down all your to-do lists and pile them in front of you. Include any lists you keep on your computer.

Next look over your list.

Put one star by tasks that you've been working on or you've added to the list in the past two months.

Put two stars by any tasks that have a deadline approaching that will shift you into action.

Put a check by the tasks that will keep you out of legal or tax trouble. Sorry, you're not off the hook for those.

Here's the scary part. Cross out all the tasks that don't have stars or checks. The tasks that have been lingering on your list but haven't been urgent or important enough to get your attention. Remember, crossing off a task doesn't mean you won't ever do it. You can always choose to do it someday if you want to. Now just isn't the time or you would have done it.

Now that your list is a mess of stars, checks and scratch lines you get to make a new one. Transfer the remaining items - the ones with stars and checks - from your old list to a clean piece of paper.

You did it! You've purged your to-do list! Isn't it wonderful to be free from all that old undone stuff?

What should you do with your old lists? You can go ahead and shred them. If that makes you nervous save them but hide them in a place where you won't see them often.

Purging your to-do list gives you a fresh start. You'll have room for new opportunities to open up and new ideas to incubate. You'll be amazed by the energy you find.

To Your ADDed Success,

Dana

PS. - Trouble Staying Organized? No Problem! Reserve your copy of 'Organized for Life' at the special 'early-bird' price.

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