There’s a lot to be said for a good to-do list, especially with new projects. However, if you’re continually looking at a to-do list week to week, it’s easy to start feeling like a slave to the list. That is one way to stifle your creativity, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build habits instead.
Habits are not an instant build. They are not something you can write on a calendar. Instead, they’re something you add in gradually. As an example of a business task, I’ll look at Pinterest. To remain active in the Pinterest algorithm, I need to pin five to seven things a day from other people since I haven’t automated that yet. Sounds like a five-minute task, right?
The thing is because it’s a small thing it’s easy to push it down the bottom of the list. Before I knew it, it was bedtime, and I still hadn’t pinned. Some days it just didn’t happen. So, I decided something had to change, and looked for a solution.
It turns out, it’s easier to build habits when they’re chained to an activity you’re already doing. In the case of my Pinterest, I decided to knock it out in the morning. That left me with the choice to do it when I woke up, before I brush my teeth, or before I shower. I opted for before I shower. I set a visual reminder in my bathroom, and it stayed there for at least two weeks.
Eventually, you end up with a chain of things you do. This chain forms an established routine, one habit following another. At that point, it’s not a list anymore, it’s a commitment. While this may not for everyone, it works brilliantly for me.