In the recent email newsletter by James Clear, he ended off with this question:

What is something that feels productive to you in the moment, but usually ends up wasting time and energy?

Wow what a great question! I love how he always ends off his newsletters with the most poignant, sharp, and surprising questions to ask. I’m a bit of a collector of “beautiful questions” myself, but he’s killing it every week!

Back to the question. It’s a beautiful question because I know my tendencies when it comes to productivity. Once I make a to-do list, I tend to get caught up in checking them off the list, so much so that I forget that perhaps many can be delayed, some ignored, a few outright shouldn’t be there. What feels productive to me in the moment of checking them off, usually ends up not moving the needle on my projects much. In other words, a waste of time and energy.

Lists are great. I love making lists. Many of my products are actually listings. They help focus efforts, consolidate information, and gives an end outcome in mind. But it can also be a trap. A productivity trap. An illusion of distance, but zero displacement. 

Recently I had just that experience. There were many things I needed to do, so I made a harmless little Post-It note and stuck it right beside my computer. Slowly but surely, I checked off one by one. But it came to a point when I kept looking at that same list for things to do, even after that list had already outlived its usefulness. What I needed was to step back, and imagine the next steps that would further my goals, but I was distracted by the small 3” x 5” piece of paper that became my purpose.

Tl;dr - My short answer to the title question – making lists. 

Hot take: We don’t need lists. If it needs to be done, someone or something will remind you that it needs to be done. The rest of the time? Just do what pushes your goal forward.