To-don’t lists,Botsman explained,are all about identifying the things that drain you and that you want to stop doing. Having a to-don’t list has made Botsman more mindful about where she spends her energy.
Botsman’s to-don’t list includes not scheduling meetings between the peak productive hours of 8am and 11am;not doing favours because she feels bad saying no;and not working with clients whose values don’t align with her own.
As soon as Imber heard about Botsman’s to-don’t list,she was champing at the bit to write one,too.
Imber,who is the author of the new bookTime Wise,now schedules an hour in her diary to cultivate her own to-don’t list. She does this once a month,at 4pm on a Monday.
“I reflect on what really de-energised me in the last month and what I want to do less of,” she says. “And I’m really deliberate in stopping things that I feel are not serving me.”
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During one of Imber’s recent to-don’t-list brainstorming sessions,she reflected on how it felt to give keynote speeches at dinner functions. She’s never enjoyed speaking at these events,where the audience is distracted,and often tipsy or flat-out drunk. So she popped “delivering keynote speeches at dinners” on her to-don’t list.
Imber doesn’t just put professional aims on her to-don’t list. During another recent to-don’t list brainstorming session,Imber thought about Sam (not her real name),a friend she used to catch up with “semi-regularly”.