Keep a won’t do list

Many years ago, when I was working as an associate editor for Lifehacker—one of a few jobs I had back then, I was a bit of a hustler—I wrote an article about a practice I was very fond of: the creation and keeping of a won’t do list. I couldn’t find that article anywhere, and I’ve since lost the practice, but as the general idea keeps coming up wherever I look, I thought I’d revisit it.

It’s not a complicated idea and is underrated; the gist is this: I make and keep a list of all the things I will not do. The idea here is to be aware of all the things that come into my day-to-day and be diligent about what makes it onto my to-do list.

It’s easy and can help bring focus onto the things that matter. It fits nicely with some of my 2023 goals, mainly not letting others dictate my time and being more proactive with my energy. And it works well alongside the mantra of “Embrace, learn, and grow stronger” as it can be reflected from time to time. It could contain concrete things I’m interested in stopping/quitting or, more general, like bad habits I’d like to work on.

Simply putting the list together and thinking about what I want to spend my time and energy on is extremely valuable. I can’t say the list itself is all that useful except to reflect upon, but it’s a relatively good device to help me be more mindful about what I’m spending time on.

My list has become a bit specific and personal, so I won’t share it all here, but here are a few choice examples:

• Won’t finish “x” project or book

• Won’t waste time looking at social media

• Won’t eat ice cream after 8 pm

• Won’t respond to that one email

• Etc.

I’ve found that quite a few things that have made it to this list are things other people try to put there. Because of this, I added, “won’t let people add to my to-do list.”

Sometimes not doing something is the best way to get things done. I’ve found this helpful in the past, and I think it’s a good practice to get into, if for no other reason than to see all the things I could be doing and better gauge how to do those things I want to do.