Q4 Week 3: Build Your To-Do List
Figuring out everything you need to execute your goal
Welcome to Week 3 of Quarter 4! We’re in the thick of the planning phase now. Most people skip this part entirely and then wonder why their goal feels overwhelming or impossible. But heyyoo, not you! You’re here, doing the glamorous work of turning dreams into reality!
Last week, we painted a gorgeous, detailed picture of what your definition of success looks like when you achieve your target goal. You got specific about the feeling you’re working toward, what your life will look like, and how you’ll know when you’ve made it. Now you have a clear destinache! But, having a beautiful vision without knowing the actual steps to get there is like having an inspo pic of a delicious chunky soup but no ingredient list or instructions to actually make it (I love soup)...
So this week, we’re breaking that beautiful vision down into every single task and thing that needs to happen to make it real (potatoes, corn, peas, maybe a stray noodle?). We’re doing the brain dump of all brain dumps! By the end of this week, you’ll have a comprehensive list of everything involved in achieving your goal.
Turning everything at once into one thing at a time
You know what happens when you tell your brain “I want to open a hardware store” or “I want to transition into UX design”? Your brain immediately goes “Sounds great! But...HOW?! There’s too much and it’s all too ambiguous!!!” And then it promptly shuts down because it has no clue where to begin.
Your goal isn’t necessarily too big or too impossible, it just feels that way because your brain can’t see the individual pieces. It’s like staring at a 5,000 piece puzzle of my nude body (hi) where every piece looks identical. Overwhelming! But when you can see the edge pieces and the little section with my elbow? Ah, now you know where to start. I should go back to the soup metaphor shouldn’t I…
Breaking your big goal into smaller tasks completely changes everything. Your brain stops seeing one terrifying blob of work and starts seeing actual doable things. “Launch my barbershop quartet” becomes “select band name options, write copy for ‘about’ page, list ad for finding band members, create pricing tiers, reach out to 3 potential clients.” Suddenly, it’s not a mystery anymore! It’s just doin’ tasks. A lot of tasks maybe, but tasks you can actually DO one at a time.
The relief of getting everything out of your brain
Right now, your brain is trying to be your project manager, your filing cabinet, and your reminder system all at once. No wonder you feel scattered! Your brain wasn’t designed to hold all that information while also trying to do creative work, make decisions, and remember to buy toilet paper, all while the world’s on fire.
Getting everything out of your head and onto paper (or screen) is like finally exhaling after holding your breath for months. Your brain can stop trying to remember everything and start focusing on actually DOING things. Research on cognitive load shows that when our brains are cluttered with unfinished tasks and half-remembered to-dos, we have way less mental energy available for the creative problem-solving we actually need.
