The size of my todo list is increasing linearly, yet the rate at which I’m doing those things is increasing only logarithmically. This is getting worse, not because the amount of things I have to do is accelerating, but because there are so many things to do that I am overwhelmed, so instead I do nothing. This is paralysis.
Paralysis occurs because having too many things to do has additional overhead that prevents things from being done at their normal pace. You have to make a choice about what to do next, but there are too many things to choose from. Furthermore, most of the things on the list either has no definite deadline or the deadline is too far away to provide a sense of urgency. This results in paralysis as a result of a phenomenon called the paradox of choice.
In essence, choice is normally good in moderation. Most people would assume that more choices will always make us happier, but the reality is that too much choice makes us less happy, there is so much to choose from that we don’t have the time or motivation to assess each one. As a result, we either make poor decisions by picking a random one, or we give up and don’t make the choice at all.
That’s why we need specific deadlines. Deadlines make the choice for us. If you have to finish that report tonight then it make sense to decide to work on it rather than that boat in a bottle that you’re building for fun. There is a consequence if you don’t finish that report tonight, but no consequence of you don’t finish that model boat.
Consequences act as penalty to missing those deadlines. They are the motivators in reducing your todo list. After all, a deadline without consequences is not a deadline at all. The harsher the consequences the more motivated you will be. Missing your laundry day might only mean wearing your less fashionable, but clean cloth for a week, but missing the deadline to pay off your gambling debt might mean a broken leg thanks to a friendly visit from a goon or two from the casino. Some people might consider the former to be a harsher consequence.
Consequences have to be enforceable. A penalty that can be mitigated or avoided is only as effective a motivator as the consequence after mitigation. Consequences should be genuine, and externally enforceable. Setting your own consequences for missing a deadline doesn’t work because it’s easy to mitigate, but if you transfer the enforcement to something you can’t control, say “the man” to enforce the payment of your parking ticket, you’re much more likely to pay it off than if you had to enforce the penalty of throwing away more money all on your own.
To recap, as advice to myself and anyone else with large todo lists:
1. Make deadlines
2. Make sure those deadlines have consequences
3. Make sure that you’re not the one enforcing the consequences. In fact, make sure you have no control over the consequences at all.
If you can’t mold your todo list to have those properties, then maybe randomly chosing to do one of those tasks is the best you can do.
