why your to-do list isn’t getting done

what to stop doing may be more important than what to do.

by bill reeb

much of your focus is naturally on “what can i do today to move me one step closer to whatever i am trying to achieve?”

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while “doing the work” really seems to be about actions you should take, often it is just as much – if not more – about what actions to stop.

in martial arts, regardless of the activity, learning to use proper technique is essential.

recently, john has been breaking down complex movements and coupling them with verbal mnemonics to help his students understand exactly what he wants them to do, and not to do. while i often don’t have difficulty executing various techniques, i almost always have a problem performing the techniques properly. for instance, i might incorporate extra strength into the movement to offset the fact that i was only partially correctly utilizing the technique being taught (which didn’t require strength, but rather leverage or flow). so, when i am doing the work, i need to remember that my first priority is to learn the technique, not to execute it. i have to stop trying to be someone who can quickly mimic the technique in order to be the person who has correctly learned the technique.

managing “what not to do” shows up in every objective you set for yourself. a few months ago while i was skiing, i was clumsily traversing downhill after nine months of being away and had to remind myself to stop leaning back in my boots so that i could turn more easily and quickly. recently, when i was juggling about 10 business projects at the same time, i had to stop reacting to whoever was screaming the loudest and start working off my “what-is-the-best-use-of-my-time-now” to-do list so that i could get more done in a shorter period of time rather than spinning in circles because i was constantly jumping from project to project.

one night in the last few weeks, i found myself in bed trying to go to sleep while i was visualizing a challenge over and over in my mind. i knew that if i didn’t stop the circus going on in my head i wouldn’t be refreshed enough to properly deal with my situation in the morning. today, while i was working on this piece, i had to stop being judgmental about what i was writing and let my thoughts flow freely, knowing that later i could fine-tune what i had written. it doesn’t matter what you are doing, for every step forward you want to take, progress is often predicated as much or more on stopping something you are doing as it is about starting something.

as you consider starting or stopping an action, recognize that whatever you decide to do, you need to approach it in a sustainable way. this is one of the major change management points i review with my clients regularly.

working with one of my cpa firm clients recently, it was decided that all of the partners needed to start spending more time in front of their clients. the client identified that this action would not only create greater loyalty but was a best practice in the profession as well. because of hearing frequently what was keeping their clients awake at night, the partners would

• improve the odds of being asked to do additional work,
• increase the possibility of referrals from those same clients and
• be positioned to provide higher-valued services given their enhanced knowledge.

after this decision was made, the group decided that each partner would be required to set up at least one meeting a week with existing clients. they also decided to track these appointments to make sure everyone was living up to expectations. then, at their monthly meetings, they planned on sharing their experiences to put peer pressure on partners who were falling short of expectations, as well as penalize them financially for their underperformance.

to be fair, i supported every step in this initiative except one: the once-a-week requirement. i suggested they start off scheduling these “gain awareness” client meetings once a month for each partner for the first six months and then start increasing the frequency once the success of the initiative was clear to everyone.

for many who read this, the idea of requiring only one client visit per partner per month could be viewed as an almost meaningless effort. “why even bother?” you might be asking. well, remember the idea of sustainability. at that time, only a few partners in that firm made these kinds of visits and they were sporadic. under this new plan, visits would be required of every partner and tied to financial rewards or punishments. given that the partners already had their plates full with work, the firm needed to recognize that it was going to get some pushback because partners were being asked to trade effort that was comfortable (doing project work) for an effort that was uncomfortable (visiting clients in more of an advisory role).

my suggestion for one visit per month was not based on magic. i knew from experience that while a member or two of the group might achieve four visits per month consistently over a several-month period, the likelihood was that the majority would not get there. sure enough, after the first month, one of 10 partners made the required visits. after the second month, a different partner of the 10 made the required visits; but still only one partner met the requirement. at the end of the first quarter, this initiative was scrapped because everyone was failing at it.

it wasn’t abandoned because it was a bad idea … it was ditched because we tried to force change at a pace that the partners were not ready to sustain. in this situation, for this new expectation to have gotten legs, we would have needed seven or eight of the 10 partners to be successfully fulfilling the new requirements every month. a high compliance rate like this would have started changing the culture and putting pressure on the few outliers rather than the way it actually worked with low compliance and abandonment.

coming full circle to integrate these examples, real change often comes from small sustainable actions that pool together – creating magnitude over time – and progress comes as much from what you stop doing as it does from what you are doing.

are you staying focused as to what to stop doing that can help you achieve your objectives? are you approaching what you do and don’t do in a sustainable way?

posted on july 9, 2020