How to Write a NOT To-Do List (And Yes, They Exist!)

How many times have we wrote a “to-do list” in hopes of getting things completed?

How many times have we wrote a “to-do list” in hopes of getting more motivated from getting things checked off?

How many times do we get an excited and motivated feeling every time we check something off our to-do list?

At the same time, how many times have we gotten a bit disheartened every time our to-do-list isn’t completed at the end of the day?

I have nothing against to-do lists! In fact… I love them.

There’s something about ticking things off every time something is completed that gives a very motivating feeling.

However, this blog post isn’t actually about how to create a to-do list. We’re actually going to use the excitement and motivation we get from creating a to-do list to our advantage, and use it for another sort of list… the NOT to-do list.

What’s a NOT -To Do List?

I mentioned on the blog post for time management, to create a NOT-to do list, and I had even written about how it’s actually more effective than an actual to-do list.

It’s really good for not getting too caught up with our biggest distractions.

In basic terms, we list all of our distractions, put it into a To-Do List, and if we DIDN’T do that particular distraction for the entire day, then you can tick it off.

Pretty much, we tick things of this list for the OPPOSITE of ticking things off in a normal to-do list. We tick the things that we never did in the day.

To-Do or NOT to-do?

To-do lists don’t work for everyone, but a NOT-to-do list may actually be beneficial to every person.

If you’re struggling to stop giving into your temptations and your distractions the entire day, a NOT-to-do list may be your motivator in making sure that you don’t do them. Because there’s something intriguing about wanting to tick things off, we hold off doing our distractions just because we want to check it off on the list.

So, if you’re struggling with a whole bunch of distractions in a day, a NOT-to-do list can help you save the time, energy, and the temptation to give into them.

What distracts people is different for everybody. These mainly go from bad habits to even little things that tend to have people lose focus.

This not-to-do list is actually personalised for everyone. Some people’s distractions may include watching too much Netflix and not getting a lot of work done, or snacking too much rather than having healthier meals… it goes on.

Other people tend to lose focus when they go on the internet too much, and some people actually work too much and don’t actually have limits in when they stop working, getting burned out by the end of the night.

That’s why, unlike a normal to-do list, a NOT to-do list actually prevents us from doing those distractions that keep us away from crushing our goals. While a normal to-do list gives us a list of tasks to do to help us achieve our goals, it mentions nothing about the distractions that takes over our focus for crushing them.

For example, writing a not-to do list will focus on not doing what distracts us (Not-To-Do – “no more than one hour of Netflix a day”). This is actually more effective than a to-do list that lists everything to do to completing one of our work projects, but not do that one distraction: (To-Do List for Project: “write outline”, “do research“, “test out project” – it lists nothing about the distractions that prevent us from doing those tasks).

Plus, writing a written NOT-to-do-list actually does help us focus more on what we should be doing, meaning that we actually end up completing things that we would put on a normal to-do list.

BUT just like a normal to-do list, it’s important for the NOT-to-do list to be specific as well. For example, it’s really vague just to put “do research” without mentioning what we’re doing research on right? It’s the same with our not-to-do list.

Down below is going to be a step-by-step guide to creating a NOT-to-do list that will stop distractions and actually help you crush your goals 🙂

Make a NOT-to-do List

1) List Down EVERYTHING that distracts you on a daily basis

This is where we can go all crazy and just list down everything that distracts us on a daily basis.

But if you’re like me and just mind blank a bit whenever someone says “write down anything and everything you want”, then we can list things down through the following pointers:

Bad Habits that you WANT to break

Obviously, when we want to break a habit, it means that we don’t want to do them anymore.

A not-to-do list contains all the bad habits that we want to stop doing.

So, just list the habits that you want to break and stop doing.

For example, my bad habits that I include on my not-do-list include the following:

• No TV until I finished all work.
• No internet scrolling until I finished all work.
• No junk food on weekdays.

The things that have been mentioned above are all my bad habits that I wanted to break, because at one point, it was a bad habit for me to keep watching TV and to go on the internet and fall into a rabbit hole of searching up random things.

So having a not-to-do list may be very beneficial for you in breaking your bad habits… and you should know them very well!

Everything that keeps you of from sticking with your good habits

Speaking of habits, we also have good habits that we want to build. However, sticking with good habits is just as hard as breaking bad habits.

In this case, we list all the things that stop us from sticking with our good habits.

For example, we may want to have a good habit of eating healthier,going to the gym, and reading more books.

Now let’s think about this, what distracts us most from doing those following habits?

For eating healthier, the distractions may be:

• Eating junk food
• Watching too many food TV shows

For going to the gym, it may be:

• The TV is more entertaining instead.

For reading more books, it may be:

• Watching YouTube videos sound more exciting.

Hence, some parts of our to-do list may include the following:

• No junk food during weekdays
• No food TV shows on weekdays
• No TV until you have gone to the gym.
• No YouTube until you have read at least one chapter of a book.

Everything that stops you from achieving your goals

Now, we have everything that stops us from achieving our goals. Have a think about the times that you have gone to work on your goals, and you just got distracted by something… big or small.

While we may have a to-do list that would list all the tasks that we need to get done to complete our goals, the to-do list doesn’t take into consideration the things that distract us from accomplishing them.

For example, if someone has a goal to work on a side hustle, their to-do list would look something like this:

• Create a business plan
• Set up a budget
• Choose a name
• Come up with ideas
• Launch the project

BUT what does the to-do list not consider? The distractions.

There are plenty of distractions that may prevent someone from starting a side hustle, this would include:

• A disorganized environment
• Trying to find “inspiration” through social media
• Using free time for unproductive stuff

Now, we can turn these things into a not-to-do list:

• Don’t go to bed without having the environment tidy
• NO social media until work for the side hustle is done
• NO TV until side hustle planning is done

When you think about it, sometimes, it’s not really the incomplete to-do-list that stops us from accomplishing our goals, but instead it’s usually the distractions that get in the way more.

When we do those following distractions every day, they get us further away from completing the to-do list, and even further away from our goals. Because once we’re distracted, the to-do list sort of fades away as well.

Anything that is just plain useless and is just distracting

This one is just listing anything that actually doesn’t add any value and just distracts us in general. And we don’t even need to be specifically working on something.

These are pretty much the obvious distractions that even a five year old will know that it’s distracting.

You know the list…

• Social Media
• Snacking
• Junk Food, Snacking
• Random Internet Scrolling

and so on…

Everyone’s list of distractions will be different. Some of these things may not be considered “distractions” for people, and for some they are major distractions that will completely derail their focus.

2) Separate them from WEEKLY to DAILY

Just like normal to-do lists, you would have more than one. Most times, it’s a weekly to-do list and a daily to-do list.

It’s the same exact thing with a not-to-do list.

With this not-to-do list, we’ll first have a weekly not-to-do list.

This not-to-do list will include the absolutely non-negotiable distractions that we absolutely could never give in. It does sound a bit extreme, but these are the distractions that would give the most serious consequences in our life if we give into them.

For example, a weekly not-to-do list may include some distractions not to do list these:

• No drinking this week.
• No more than 2 hours of TV this week.
• No spending more than $100 on unnecessary things.
• No smoking this week.

But maybe, we can negotiate some of these distractions, and make them specific like this:

• No junk food on weekdays.
• No TV on weekdays.
• No eating out on weekdays.
• No social media on weekends.

As you can see above, we can negotiate our not-to-do list to limit distractions for just the weekdays or the weekends… we can be flexible with them.

And then we have the daily not-to-do list. The daily not-to do list is a bit obvious… it’s the distractions that we can absolutely not give into during the day. It may look like something like this:

• No junk food.
• No social media.
• No TV.
• No spending money on coffee.

BUT, just like the weekly not-to-do list, we can make it a bit more flexible, if we don’t want to get too extreme. We can adjust it a bit like this:

• No junk food until all healthy meals are eaten.
• No social media after 8pm.
• No TV until all work is done.
• No spending money on coffee except for Friday.

As you can see above, you can be more flexible with the not-to-do list so that you don’t completely deprive yourself of some of the distractions… you don’t have to get absolutely restrictive on yourself!

3) Keep them SIMPLE but also Keep Them SPECIFIC

No one likes long to-do lists… same with the not-to-do lists! The longer any list is, the harder it is to motivate ourselves to complete it.

So chop down the not-to-do list. If there are a few distractions on there that’s a bit too extreme, then you can cut them down. However, while we are keeping the list simple, we also want to make it as specific as possible.

If you have seen the examples above, you may have noticed that they are specific and that there is a specific time frame that goes along with it.

For example, instead of just saying no junk food, we had made it specific and said no junk food on weekdays. This kind of tricks our mind into thinking that we are not completely depriving ourselves of the tasty (but sadly unhealthy food) that we want to really eat.

Same thing with social media. Instead of saying no social media which sounds a bit restrictive, we say, no social media before 6pm. That goes to say that we can use it, but we had put a boundary on it so it doesn’t become a complete distraction.

It’s just like in a normal to-do list where we don’t just say do research paper. When we put it on a to-do list, we do have to get specific right? We break it down into do introduction, do body paragraphs, do conclusion. It’s important for us to get specific otherwise if we’re not sure exactly what we’ve got to do, there’s a higher chance that we’re going to procrastinate it.

4) Be Kind to Yourself

Yes, there may be times when we won’t 100% stick exactly to our not-to-do list.

Willpower may fail us, and self-discipline may have been hard to build.

However, blaming ourselves and putting ourselves into a valley of despair is not going to get us anywhere. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many times we fall, but how many times we keep getting back up.

Make sure that, among making all our lists (including our schedules & to-do lists), we prioritise self-care, rest, and let ourselves be unproductive once in a while. Our not-to-do list is supposed to contribute to our personal growth, and help us improve ourselves. Falling but getting back up is what matters most.

View some different ways to help with your not-to-do list, through these related articles:

Some Ideas to Include in a Not-To- Do List:

Boundaries – Overlooked form of self-care

Our Diet is Not Just the Food that We Eat

Break Your Habits & Achieve Your Goals

Starting & Breaking Habits

Build Systems to Achieve Your Goals

Books to Build Habits

Overall Blog Posts on Building Habits

Self-Discipline

Build Self-Discipline

Willpower

Forget Willpower, Use This Instead

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