What’s on your ‘don’t do’ list?

You might be wondering what a ‘don’t do’ list is.

And don’t you worry, I’m going to get to that, but first, a story.

Back in the 2010’s I jumped onto the mindfulness bandwagon. I did the free 10 day trial of Headspace and because Andy Puddicomb’s soft and soothing voice easily lead me to a paid subscription.

It didn’t take long until I was up to doing 20 minutes every morning and on the whole I was enjoying it.

At the same time work was busy and I was struggling to fit everything in so I talked about it with my coach. I remember her being surprised about how much I was doing each day and she asked me:

“What could you take away that isn’t serving you?”

Meditation immediately flashed into my brain. But no, that couldn’t be right, surely that moment of stillness was helping?

But it wasn’t. It was stressing me out and so reluctantly I dropped it.

I didn’t know what a ‘don’t do’ list was back then, but if I did, that would have been the first entry.

We’re often suckered into to the idea that we need to be doing more in our lives when perhaps doing less might give us the outcomes we’re looking for.

So as you go through your week try asking yourself:

If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?

And put your answer on your ‘don’t do list’

I’m going to write it up on my white board to remind me, it might help me focus on editing the book!

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