Have you ever
found you have started to become Bridget Jones?
Increasingly I am organising my life around a
series of to-do lists. I knew things had got completely
out of proportion when I started a to-do list
on a white board in my kitchen for me, my wife
and 13-month-old baby.
We had an epiphany
last Friday night in the pub (as you do) when
we decided we were never going to do half the
things on the list, couldn’t really be bothered
trying and so should rejoice in a life of non-achievement.
It was quite a moment.
Business life
has a tendency to become a long list of tasks.
The problem is that these lists are self-perpetuating
– there is no way you ever come to the end
of your list. I saw a statistic somewhere that
said the average businessperson had a backlog
of three weeks of work at any one time. It just
makes life feel completely relentless.
This leads me
to confess in this column possibly the saddest
thing I have done. I put items on my to- do list
I have already done - just so I can cross them
out. And now I have a computer programme, Microsoft
Outlook, that makes this worse. My ‘to-do’s’
stalk me every time I turn on my computer and
start beeping so I can’t ignore them.
But it has a far
more sinister effect. Following endless to-do
lists makes you end up valuing your life not by
what you have achieved, but by what you have left
undone. The best things that happen in business,
and in life, somehow never appear on to-do lists.
I’m fortunate
in that I’m quite lazy, so things tend to
naturally drop off my list undone and I don’t
fret too much about them. I like to think it’s
a natural defence - otherwise, I’ll be lying
on my deathbed fretting about not having ordered
the stationery.
On a completely
unrelated tangent, I also found out the true power
of PR last week. I mentioned in my column a while
back someone had swiped my mouse. Shortly thereafter
my post brought me a lovely shiny silver mouse
from the generous people at Vestech. Now if only
I could find where I’ve left my silver Audi
TT soft-top coupe … 
