That’s it. You don’t need to read the post – it’s all in the title.
What a great phrase! We all know those management and self-help rules: that getting anything done requires you to make priorities, that you need to make decisions about what you are not going to do as much as about what you are going to do, that often you need the courage to say no, etc.
I got the phrase from Tom Peters, The Little Big Things, who got it from someone else.
In Peters’ words at the end of this section:
So, top of your “to-do” list for today is immediately beginning work on your “to-don’t” list!
And he quotes John Sawhill, who took over the strategic thinking for a huge environmental charity called Nature Conservancy, and asked the question:
What areas should the Conservancy focus on, and more important – what activities should we STOP? [Peters’ italics]
Profound stuff…
To come to do that which you have not you must go by a way in which you do not.
Profound stuff indeed Father Stephen. In our busy lives where everything seems to be coming at us faster than ever before, it feels, to me, that everything has to be done. But there are things that really don’t! When I go back to work next week, I’m going to use a ‘to don’t’ list.