Page 49 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

20 DO BE DO BE DO…

Franklin is no friend of procrastinators. One of the recurrent themes of
The Way to Wealth is the need to get on the case right now and not put
things off. ‘Work while it is called today, for you know not how much
you may be hindered tomorrow,’ he intones.

DEFINING IDEA…
I am definitely I am definitely going to take a course on time
management…just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.
~ LOUISE. BOONE, ACADEMIC AND AUTHOR

This is all very well in an ideal world. Sometimes, however, you have no
choice but to leave some items of work until tomorrow, perhaps because
those kids aren’t going to pick themselves up from school, or perhaps
because the alternative is to run screaming from the building and security
have already warned you about doing that. In these circumstances—and in
many others—the simple to-do list can become your friend.

Now, some people see to-do lists as just a means of putting things off.
After all, it’s a lot easier to write down items on a to-do list than it is to
actually do the things you have written on it. Others baulk at to-do lists
simply because once you start detailing everything you’re supposed to be
working on, there is a strong impulse to fake your own death or run away
to sea, or both. However, for the true to-do blackbelts there is a mastery
and mythology about the to-do list that repays the effort of learning.

Typically people compile their to-do lists in the morning, often as a way of
putting off actually starting work. If it helps you to organise your day then
that’s not in itself a bad thing, but it is often far more productive to write
your list at the end of the day when the pressing tasks and problems are far
more fresh in your mind. On top of that, you’ll be more relaxed about the
tasks that you have already committed to your to-do list, as the act of
organising your thoughts and writing your list calms you down. It helps you
to focus on the next day, while also helping to ensure the good night’s