Amy V Taylor - Create a HOME You Love

While todo lists can feel like they are helping us, the mindset we bring around them can be a major productivity killer. Todo lists often create a sense of pressure, overwhelm, or obligation. And so today, we're going to dump them and many people at this point start to freak out. That's okay. If you're freaking out, that's okay. If you're rejoicing, thinking you're never going to have to look at a list again, it's not what's going to happen.

In this first section of the book, we are going to start by identifying three different types of lists we can use to replace our Todo lists and find a more fulfilling way to get shit done today.

One of the fastest ways to kill our motivation to take action, and therefore our productivity, is to only focus on what we have to do, never taking time to reflect on what is being done.

TODO lists can be the worst for this. We want to embrace a mentality of progress not perfection. This is where TADA lists come in.

We want to make sure we are noticing progress. Ive lost count now of the number of years since I started using these to boost my confidence, restore my self-esteem, and remind myself I am more capable than I sometimes remember.

It was a fairly standard day when my son, in full meltdown because I asked him to put his plate in the sink (the horror!!) screamed at me: You never do anything and his words pierced my heart.

You see, while I knew he was simply angry and didnt really mean what he said, I felt it to my core because on some level I felt like I didn't do enough. Like I wasn't enough. (Neither were true of course, but its not always easy to remember that in the heat of the moment when you already feel worthless and run down).

At the time my husband and I had 3 children under 5, my post-natal depression was kicking back in, and its highly possible I was pregnant with child number 4. Hormones, sleep deprivation, and constant challenges to my worth meant I took it very, very personally.

Not the first time. Before this day, (and some days since) in those moments of sheer heaviness falling on my shoulders I have been known to fall apart and stay stuck in depression.

I really dont know what was different on that day, or where I learned the idea of a TADA list from (maybe Flylady, but Ive never seen her speak about it since), but it was a turning point.

Instead of being weighed down by feelings of unworthiness I decided to prove (more to myself than the 4-year-old) that I did in fact do many worthwhile things each and every day. The following morning, I got up and started keeping track of everything I did.

By 9am, - Id also filled an entire scrapbooking page with a list and increased my recognition that I do in fact attend to many things (despite what the house often looks like) and I had reconnected with my worth - so I allowed myself to stop tracking everything.

But the lesson stuck, and any time I feel unworthy, I feel challenged about if I am good enough, I remind myself that I am using the power of a TADA list.