I’m starting an experiment with a different kind of to-do list – the Only Do List. It’s a list of the things I’m restricting myself to doing. A constraint list. I’m telling myself I can do anything I want as long as it’s on the list.

My hope is that it will force me to do things I’ve been avoiding.

There’s a challenge in the list of course. It must be written in such a way to include everything I might reasonably do but also puts restrictions on what I can do. The list must keep procrastination at bay. So it can’t simply be a to-do list with the item(s) I must get done. It must be a list that keeps my interest rather than fuels my disappointment. If working on something is not going well for me the list needs to be able to provide an alternative that also somehow helps me make progress in some way.

I’m only at the list-making stage so have yet to decide what to allow or not allow. No doubt as the experiment evolves some things will be added and some dropped or restricted. I think the Only Do List needs to include things like watching television where under normal conditions there’s no explicit restriction on. Including watching television for x hours per week restricts it and prevents unstructured watching. Including it also allows me to know that I can watch something if I want.

Success and failure are equally likely. Let’s find out which it is.