My partner and I recently tried knife-throwing. He was excellent at it, I was terrible at it, and we both enjoyed it immensely.
What struck me about the technique is the importance of counting your paces away from the target. Making sure that you are the precise distance away to allow the knife room to make its midair rotation and lodge blade-first into the wood. It was much more calculated than it looks in the average action film.
To-do lists are like knife-throwing. It’s easy to just toss your time and energy at the list rapid-fire, hoping something sticks blade-first. The work may get done, the calls may be made, the room may get cleaned. But at the end of the day, did anything “stick”?
Next time you’re faced with an overflowing to-do list, try counting your paces away from the target. In other words, step back from the work (literally or figuratively) and consider the items that will make the most impact. Decide which actions you want to see buried in the bullseye at the end of the day. Aim, throw, repeat.
It’s not a guarantee that the work will stick. Your effort might still hit the target handle-first and bounce off. But you’ve at least approached the task mindfully, and from there, you can self-correct and try again.
Rather than letting your to-do list dictate your day, use your to-do list as a tool for making the change you seek to make. You might throw fewer knives by the end of the day, but I bet more of them will be lodged in the target.
Originally published here on May 3, 2021. Social sharing image by Mister B. on Unsplash.