This year has been challenging, unpredictable, unplannable, unusual, and unprecedented. We have had to pivot and adjust more than ever before in our lives (at least for many of us). Our brains are processing so much change all the time. Everything needs to be thought about all the time. Our habits and routines have been completely disrupted. We are using our decision-making power so much more often and are getting exhausted so much more easily than before.
I want to help you create a massive possibilities list, and not use a to-do list. I want to help you to change how you think to focus on chunking and orienting your thinking to bigger priorities. All month, we will be talking about how to adjust our thinking, homes, and lives to take more control of our homes as we continue to move forward during the pandemic.
I got rid of my to-do list a few years ago, and all of my actionable to-do items go into my Sunday Basket®. But, sometimes, as I shared on my Instastories a few weeks ago, I’ll make a “Possibilities List” for myself over a weekend. Today, I want to share more with you about how I do that and use it to focus so I can be productive.
Traditional to-do lists are completely unrealistic. And, let’s be honest, they are never done. If you don’t give yourself a limit, you never get to rest and relaxation. A to-do list is never-ending. The Sunday Basket® is designed to hold all of those things that maybe need to get done. Then each week, you pull out the things that truly need to get done. Everything that remains in the Sunday Basket® is a possibility. Everything left is personal time – and you choose how to use it. When you have completed your must-do items, step away and do something for yourself – take a bath, read a book, or spend time just being. I want you to be able to finish what is essential, but then also have time for what lifts you up and makes you come alive.
The possibilities list is all the things you would have previously put on a to-do list that does not have a deadline. Some will be aspirational. Some are the things you feel you should be doing (even though you might not want to do them). Your possibilities list is the many ways you could spend your time. And, anything on that list you can ignore or avoid, guilt-free. Possibilities lists can be about anything – your home, a book tour, the summer, travel plans, or anything else that catches your interest. Really, it’s a brain dump. I want you to get all of those ideas, plans, dreams, and possibilities out of your head and into a safe place (hint – the safe place is your Sunday Basket®!).
