I have a list. It is a list of things that have one thing in common. I'm really good at that one thing. So good at it, that the list exists because of it. I avoid everything on it. I call this my 🐘 list.
On this list, you will often find tasks that are "not-urgent", but are important. Tasks that I find difficult, tasks that I think I am bad at, or unpleasant tasks to do.
I avoid these tasks for many different invented reasons. I am almost as good at inventing reasons not to do these tasks as I am not doing them. A few of my favourite are:
"I'll start this tomorrow when I'm fresh."
"I can't start this yet - this new email/message is much more important to respond to right now."
"I have time later in the week to do this."
"I will start this early next week as that works better with my schedule."
But my favourite is when I avoid something for so long with so many good excuses that the task is now "urgent" instead of "not-urgent". Because the item is now "urgent", I have to change the scope of the task and do something inferior. This often means the task ends up back on my to-do list.
At our startup, we consistently found ourselves asking why was this happening? Why were we avoiding the hard-work? The work that had upfront cost, but delayed gratification. We decided to make a list of all those things we were avoiding. We wanted to make them so obvious that not discussing them was not discussing the elephant in the room. That was how the 🐘 list was born.
The rules of the lists are simple.
Step 1. Make a to-do list in a public forum
Step 2. Populate it with things you are currently avoiding. Think of things that are due in 3 or 4 weeks. Or even better. Don't have a due date.
Step 3. Add another five things that you are even avoiding putting on the list because you really really don't want to do them.
Step 4. Visit it weekly with someone to hold you accountable. Keep asking yourself, does this task remain "important"? If it does not, kill it from the list. If it is still important, what is stopping you from doing it?
I feel proud to write this post because this week was the first time The 🐘List became empty. It is possible. Keep at it.
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