This Works for Me

Move Tasks From Your To-Do List to an ‘I Did’ List

It can change your whole outlook

N.A. Turner
Forge
Published in
3 min readSep 12, 2019

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Credit: Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images

BBeing a freelance writer, I’m free to create my own schedule each day, which usually means I work on a jumble of projects until I go to bed. I’ll cross one item off my to-do list, just to replace it with another. I’m never “done,” which often leaves me anxious, restless, and in a perpetual state of self-pity.

I was dating a psychologist recently and told her about this frustration of mine. While things didn’t work out between us, she did leave me with some valuable advice from her toolbox: To counter my feelings of disappointment, she suggested I keep an “I did” list — a running tab of daily accomplishments. By focusing on what I’ve done instead of what I haven’t, she told me, I would feel more content and in control.

It seemed like such a tiny adjustment that I was initially skeptical. Could something this simple really be enough to improve my outlook?

Still, I decided to give it a try. About a month ago, alongside my to-do list in my Notes app, I created another list and named it “I did.” Every time I would do something — whether it was a mundane task, like answering an email, or a major success, like writing 1,000 words for the novel I’m working on — I would cross it off…

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Published in Forge

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N.A. Turner
N.A. Turner

Written by N.A. Turner

I write about writing & creativity. Short story writer and novelist. Amazon best-selling author. Free eBook with writing tips: bit.ly/TurnerMail