Everybody wants to change their life for the better. Right? I am not an exception. I strive to achieve my big goals as most people do. My parents have taught me that I will achieve almost anything with hard work and perseverance. And I have done so. Ever since high school, I have been working hard, jumping on every opportunity that comes along. However, somewhere along the way, I have things mixed up. Until recently, I believed that I was more successful the more I could do in a day. Let me examine this fallacious idea and tell you how I changed my life with one single habit.

“We tend to overcomplicate things, believing that if something isn’t making us grind, we’re not doing it right.”

~ Matt D’Avella

Ever since I started college, I have tried to be as productive and efficient as possible. I have tried to put as many things as possible on my to-do list. I used to believe that if I wanted to succeed, I must work constantly and set everything else aside. You know, because productivity equals success.

I started reading books on productivity, everything I could put my hands on. Then, of course, I started practicing different techniques I had learned about in the books. However, I did not see the whole picture at first. I only put to practice parts of what I have learned and thought I would become as productive as Elon Musk in a fortnight.

I did not expect what would happen next. I thought that becoming more organized would make me more productive immediately. However, I ended up writing long lists of tasks, using various apps, only completing half of what I had planned. The result was that I felt even less productive than before. I was constantly catching up with my planned tasks, running late, and feeling overwhelmed. I started feeling a bit depressed by my lack of progress.

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a video by Peter McKinnon called “I did this for 30 Days and it changed my life.” It is a cool 9-minute video about how he was inspired to write his most important tasks for the day and make a game out of crossing them off when he is done with them.

The idea is certainly not something that I have not heard about before. However, after watching the video, I decided to try it and write down my most critical tasks for the following day. I also made a couple of tweaks to the way I put together my list. I think they were crucial for the success of my little experiment.

The first thing I decided to do differently was limit the tasks on my list to only eight. That number was not my idea. I took it straight from Peter’s video and his short interview with John Grimsmo (@johngrimsmoknives), who took the concept from Andy Frisella, the 75 Hard Program creator.

In retrospect, I should have seen this a long time ago. Why? Because I have learned the 80/20 rule in college, where I studied Applied Macroeconomics and Finance. The rule was discovered by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. It states that 80% of the results come form 20% of the effort.

So, instead of putting a ridiculous amount of tasks on my list, I resolved to write down only the most crucial 20% that no one else can do. In this way, I could concentrate on each task in turn and get the best possible results. Also, by restricting the length of the list, each task should be very Weill tough out. In fact, in his 75 Hard Program, Andy Frisella starts with only five critical tasks and moves to eight later.

The second significant change I made was to put pen to paper. I have always thought that using my phone and laptop is better because it is more technologically advanced.

Over the years, I have used countless apps that promised to make me more organized and free my time. The result, however, was not what it should have been. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that technology does not work or is evil. I still use iCal, Trello, Notes, and other apps to stay organized.

So, I took my Lamy fountain pen out of retirement and started writing following the advice of Matt D’Avella. He recently posted that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals when you write them down in an Instagram post. And I believe he is quite right. Ever since I started writing my tasks on paper and crossing them out, I rarely end the day with an unfinished job.

But to see any results, I had to stick with the practice for long enough to make it a habit. So I was resolved to give the 8 critical tasks a two-month trial. Why two months? Because to form a new habit, an average person requires between 18 and 250 days. And for the practice to become automatic, it takes about 60 days.
There were positive results after only a couple of weeks. But I wanted to be sure, and now after more than three months of practice, I can say that this simple habit really changed my life.

Every day I write down the important tasks I need to complete for the next day as I go. Nowadays, I rarely end a day with a list that is not fully crossed out. As a result, I am not constantly catching up with the work I have to do, and I can finally concentrate on the things that will ultimately bring me to my bigger goals.

To be continued …