Daily Writing #4: What is your Not-To-Do List?

Your Not-to-do list trumps your To-do list.


I heard this concept from Robin Sharma, one of the world’s top leadership experts.

This is a unique way of looking at things. Come new year and most of us fill our to-do lists to the brim. We overestimate ourselves. And we all know where all that leads us to. Failure.

So, a not-to-do list can be beneficial.


This theory is based on minimalism.

Today we are all led to believe that we have to accomplish as much as possible within a day or a year. That builds pressure and we pile on a number of goals to achieve. Initially, we are excited but eventually, motivation fades and we know we would never be able to focus on too many goals at a time.

Hence, prepare your to-do list with all the tasks but then start removing most of them from it and add them to your not-to list.

In the end, you will see that what you are left with is what you should focus on. Those few goals are critical/important goals that will serve you the most.

And when you have achieved your to-do list goals then pick one or two goals from your not-to list and add them to your to-do list.

That way you will keep on achieving your goals step by step without any undue pressure.


This technique can help us achieve more as we focus our energy on fewer targets we can progress further.


I write daily here on my blog. There is no limit to the word count. I am not focusing on any topic here. I want to build a daily writing habit. This is Day 4 of the Daily Writing Challenge in 2022.