I Hate To-Do Lists

True. I hate. I work for a big corporate, but I hate to maintain a To-Do List. I’ve attended numerous workshops which speak about the importance of maintaining a To-Do list. Most of my managers used to do that, and expect their team members to follow that practice as well. I am not blaming any one who maintains and follows such a list. It’s a personal choice, and I respect that decision of yours to follow your heart. But I’ve seen people (mainly those motivation speakers) give over importance to the To-Do list.



I feel claustrophobic in maintaining a To-Do list. I feel suffocated.

I feel some one is making me do something at gunpoint.


I prefer in following my heart to do what I want to do and when I want to do. I do keep occasional reminders to make a phone call or to meet some one, but most of the time I remember those things even before my mobile reminds me. Sometimes I don’t do things even if I know it needs to be done, just because I don’t feel like doing it then. For the same reason I am not able to make regular blog posts. I have also seen people promising to make one post every day. Some follow, some doesn’t. A promise made to self or to others is to be abided. The easy way out? Don’t make promises – to self or others.

A To-Do list is a self promise.


Following a To-Do list makes life so very mechanical and predictable. At the end of the day, our life seem like a big excel sheet after an audit, with those funny coloured rows and columns. I was supposed to do this, have I done this? What made me not do it? When else am I planning to do it? Aaargh! Give me a break.

I didn’t do it, because I didn’t feel like doing it. Period. Why digging more?


There are people who fail terribly even after maintaining and following a To-Do list, and there are people who do the right thing at the right time mainly because they don’t maintain a To-Do list. I strive to be the latter one.

Let life be enigmatic.



Touchwood : I have never missed a train because I did not maintain a To-Do list.