Life & Lists
Maybe our most powerfull tool as entrepreneurs - but also the most hated one... THE LIST.
“Some of Virgin’s most successful companies have been born from random moments – if we hadn't opened our notebooks, they would never have happened.” - @richardbranson
“I have always lived my life by making lists. These vary from lists of people to call, lists of ideas, lists of companies to set up, lists of people who can make things happen. I also have lists of topics to blog about, lists of tweets to send, and lists of upcoming plans...”
Here are Richard’s 10 tips to succeed with lists:
(I felt free to mark those that seemed especially important to me...)
- Write down every single idea you have, no matter how big or small
- Always carry a notebook
- Find a list method that works for you.
- Make a list of small, manageable tasks to complete every day
- Mark off every completed task youll find making each tick very satisfying
- Make your goals measurable so you know if your plans are working
- Set far off, outlandish goals. What do you want to have achieved by 2020? How about 2050?
- Include personal goals in your lists, not just business
- Share your goals with others. You can help motivate each other further
- Celebrate your successes then make new lists of new goal
Lists can save your life as an entrepreneur. The set you free from having to remeber everything (therefore they “create” new capacity in your head), they are the reliable piece of orientation you can hold on to... done right, they can turn chaos into order!
Truth be told... What I use to end up with sometimes looks very much like this:
Because making the list is only a third of the magic.
The three steps to make them work for you:
- Create them (see above)
- Prioritze what to do now, later, not at all
- Follow-up/Update
Do not focus too much on getting things off your list.
You might end up feeling like Sisyphos...
If you do things right in life, more things will pop up than you can x out.
Or as this one quote sais:
"Success is never getting to the bottom of your to do list."
From my experience this is quite true for most innovative and many successful people.
Don’t worry too much, stick to your lists... and just keep going.
This applies to your to do list, as well as to your bucket list and all the others...
