My To-Do List Philosophy
Published July 04, 2022 · 8:49 · 297,673 views
About This Video
The to-do list as red shoes. Hans Christian Andersen's dancer who loved dancing so much she put on magical shoes that let her dance better than anyone, and then the shoes took over and danced her to death. Van's lists are dancing him to death.
He uses Post-it notes on card stock, four quadrants that shapeshift from list to list. His friend Cynthia Rowley renamed them "do lists": not to-do, because these are tasks you're doing now, not putting off. The system works: every detail of the channel started as an entry. The label on this shirt, the pencil, the cork floor, the microphone. But the well has run dry. A Post-it from January 14th reads: "too much of my creativity comes from my todo lists these days." Meaning his creativity is coming from chores, not inspiration. He collapsed two Mondays in a row after 11 a.m. The solution is the last line item on every do list: enjoy all of the above.
Transcript
our to-do lists contain the molecules of our achieved goals but I have a suspicion that my do lists my to-do lists are an accomplice to a creeping deep burnout of me my friend Cynthia rowy coined them do lists not too lists she said two do lists are for we call them do lists because these are tasks we're in the process of doing right now we're not putting them off I F A full fed piece of card stock with 15 or 20 posits and each quadrant holds either
tasks or ideas the quadrants subjects change and evolve but the lower right is almost always my buy quadrant my shopping list sometimes I use other quadrants as daily to-do lists in some quadrants I write down ideas or media someone has suggested did books or movies Maybe music if I'm on a job or at an important meeting or party I sometimes list everyone's name that I meet so I can call them by name while I'm there and it's also a good record but besides the shopping list quadrant there's no real set format to these things they evolve and shapeshift from list to list one of the patrons from the patreon suggested I do an episode about my do lists I wrote it down I thought it was a good idea but when I went to write the notes for this episode I started thinking ah I don't know it's what are
you g to say about a do list about a to-do list it's seemed a little thin to me so I went into where I keep all my three- ring binders which contain all of my archived to-do lists and you know started looking through them and then realized that my entire life was written down on a du list at some point in the past this shirt you know getting the label sewn on this shirt making this pencil and this uh eraser and this thing uh written on some du list somewhere I could find it buying this microphone buying this paper typing this thing getting this Clapper the the cork floor upon which my feet rest right now I laid down that was a whole project it started with a do list here's a binder from 2015 when we did this project for Sleepy Jones and this
was a complicated project it was just me and and one other guy in BC slce and we had an F3 my F350 and we had to go to all these towns Los Cruses New Mexico The Hamptons we did a couple in California we left from New York City we had to get helium tanks in all these towns and then we had to launch these balloons and we did it under budget and it worked and it just it's all there in the to-do list it's all this everything broken down but all of the steps for this project occurred to me at like random unpredictable times so you know I always have a pencil and I always have a to-do list in my pocket oh get the Swiss Army knives don't forget you need card St oh we're out of tape call so and so about staying at blah blah blah and the tasks and the ideas come very gradually some weeks I don't write anything some days I fill an entire page to me what makes the
do lists so effective is that an entry that I've written in on a to-do list generally speaking I don't write it unless it comes from a place I can trust it's usually that quiet voice that we often ignore but that's our subconscious and we ignore it because our ego tells us to ignore it but that's often the source of all of the little oh don't forget to do this don't forget that oh you're going to need a keeping disciplined to-do lists has made me listen to that voice more carefully value it more and write it down because it comes from a place I know not where it makes it easy for me to trust it later on and not second doubt it and a lot of times when executing your to-do list you just don't want to do it and I've sort of found that if you just allow your body to do the thing it's telling you to do turn your brain off
just allow just like okay I'm just going to sit at the typewriter and David Lynch said something like the artist life is a life lived around working and what ends up happening is that the lists sort of become my boss and become my my red [Music] shoes it's I think it's a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale called The Red Shoes and this is the gist of it there's also a movie and the gist of it this this dancer love dancing so much she got these magical red shoes that allowed her to dance better than anyone else and she loved it and she could dance and she could dance and she could dance but then the red shoes took over and she could do no other thing and she was trapped in
the red shoes and I believe they danced her to death now obviously I'm being dramatic but my to-do lists are sort of dancing me to death and I found this Post-It note from January 14th and it says too much of my creativity comes from my Todo lists these days meaning my creativity lately is not coming from inspiration but rather from chores because I'm exhausted and be beginning to burn out last Monday and Tuesday after 11:00 a.m. I basically collapsed and slept and was incapable of working for the rest of
the day it's because you know I love doing this so much I love all the things on the on the to-do list I I'm compelled to do them but now the well has run dry and I need to to allow the rain to fill the aquafer so that I can pump some more ideas out of the well and more like breakthroughs out of the well so I've got this strategy where like my big to-do list like my big binder the next thing I'm doing is to take a break in probably December January just keep posting stuff have a reserve of things to post while I'm gone but just probably go to Mexico you know God willing and the next sort of like the next due list is to facilitate my doing nothing because one of the things that I've kind of
learned getting older is an essential line item at the bottom of all of the do lists especially if you're working for yourself is enjoy all of the above this week on the patreon Zen one has been retired Zen 2 is available to the next 310 new patrons who sign up here's the link
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Sleepy Jones mentions — commercial project referenced, 2015 binder
- F-350 uses — Ford truck used for Sleepy Jones project
- Post-It notes essential — super sticky, used on do-list system
People Referenced
Cynthia Rowley, David Lynch, Hans Christian Andersen
Films & Media Referenced
- fairy tale/film about dancing to death, metaphor for do-list obsession