Lists Increase Mental Health & Productivity
Humans are designed to achieve goals, but we live in a very disruptive, distraction-filled culture. By design, every single person is a goal set-up. That's why having a daily checklist is good not only for your business but also for your mental health. Lists provide a road map for our mind to follow in order to arrive at the destination of revenue, rest and resources. And every road map has a destination, or, in this case, a goal.
According to a Harvard Business Review article, people typically have upwards of 15 ongoing goals or projects going on at the same time. Our culture tells us we can multitask, but that is a myth. To be successful, our checklists and daily to-do lists help us manage these activities so we can give our full attention to one thing at a time.
Lists are nothing new. We each had our first list growing up and was with homework — We were given a number of tasks to complete within by a deadline. It's proven by neuroscientists that lists, especially lists that are being accomplished, are therapeutic. Many people become anxious when they have uncompleted tasks on a to-do list. Incomplete or pending tasks undermine our confidence to be effective.
A list helps us organize our life and our time. They also provide us with focus and increase our self-esteem, which releases the pleasure-inducing hormone oxytocin. Lists also help reduce anxiety It is also healthy for us because help us manage our time better.
People who are well-organized reap the benefits of organization by being are often the best earners as well in this multitasking focused society. Our lists keep us focused on the most important thing.
Here are some key takeaways to reinforce your list-making habit.
Lists:
■ are planning tools that help us structure our time and our energies
■ give us focus and direction which allows us to keep on purpose
■ produce a sense of accomplishment when we complete a task
■ accomplishing the things on the list produce a trajectory to accomplish the next task. We will continue to undermine our perception of self-worth without the confidence boost we get from completion
■ help us recognize when we've crossed the goal line
■ organizes our ambition and our vision for the future
■ completed list, reduce anxiety and improve any kind of attention deficit disorders that may be mitigating your ability to manage your focus
