Why high-performers don’t use to-do lists
There is a horror story out there.
Man is feeling overwhelmed, begins compiling a to-do list.
Three bullets turn into ten — ten bullets turn into twenty.
Moments later, he finds himself in hand-to-hand combat with a to-do list so long and so vast it resembles the spiraling tentacles of a giant squid.
He loads himself up with enough caffeine to fuel an entire city and begins his slow tedious descent to the bottom, crossing each line off the to-do list one at a time.
Shortly into his battle, he makes a terrifying realization — the to-do list is like a regenerating monster right out of a terror flick — for each line he crosses off another three lines appear at the bottom.
He screams. He jumps out of his office window. Thankfully he is on the first floor so he essentially just steps into a large shrub scaring a small family of opossums.
As he begins to sob hysterically, he hears the unraveling of the wretched to-do list drawing ever closer. He turns, it envelopes him, then pulls him back into the deep dark depths of his office.
He is consumed by the monster of his own creation.
