We are overwhelmed with all the things we ‘have’ to do on our daily to-do lists. Why? And why Meditation Shouldn’t be on Your To Do List? Too many tasks to remember, too many things to do and too many people requesting our attention, too many mini tasks (each important in its unique way), too much time on social media where we forget the things that we should complete today, too many distractions? But why meditation shouldn’t be on your to-do list?
Here, we are not strictly against having a to-do list since it can truly be helpful and crucial when you have too many tasks and you want to stay organized and complete everything. A to-do list can remove clutter from your daily or weekly tasks. It also allows you to prioritize more important tasks, and with the to-do list tasks won’t be forgotten.
At some point, everyone made or at least we tried to make a to-do list. The list may get completed or not and when it does, there is a sense of accomplishment. However, if it is not completed, it may lead to stress.
If you are trying to be more mindful in your everyday life, having meditation on your to-do list is pretty ironic. Mediation and mindfulness shouldn’t be just another thing to cross from your to-do list. Although there are times (especially at work) when we have to stay on a top of our game with too many things to do, we should remember that we can’t be slaves of a to-do list.
A to-do list is for everyday mundane tasks and meditation shouldn’t be just another thing you must do.
Why Meditation Shouldn’t be Another Stress on the List?
With or without a to-do list, important tasks will be completed. If something really matters, it will be done. If you are a stay-at-home mom, again, it makes sense to have a to-do list to make sure you did everything. But keep in mind that when we have a to-do list in our private life, we should consider sharing some of the house/family work with our family members.
Sometimes, we are overwhelmed with our to-do list that there is no time for being spontaneous and creative. Usually, those spontaneous and creative moments matter in the long run when compared to daily to-do stuff. Those things we will remember, accomplishing a daily mundane to-do list will not be remembered as a great accomplishment.
Meditation helps us with doing tasks in a different way than a to-do list where we just want for things to be completed. With meditation we practice mindfulness, we practice staying present. In everyday life, we are not even aware that we are distracted, jumping from one task to another, without completing the first one. We often operate like we are on autopilot.
To-do lists reduce stress once we start crossing all those things we have completed and we feel good about our work and effort. However, as we said, to-do lists can create stress if we keep adding mini tasks on the list, feeling like 24 hours is not enough to complete everything we need to do. From the other side, with meditation, we focus more on our well-being than tasks that require our attention. When we are taking care of ourselves, tasks will be completed and if not, we will feel good knowing that we did our best.
Why Meditation Shouldn’t be on Your To Do List? Meditation shouldn’t be on your to-do list just as spending time with your family shouldn’t be on the list of things to do. Taking care of yourself and loved ones is not something that should not be crossed from the long list of things we need to do.
If we should and must have one to-do list, it would be a mindfully created to-do list of things we want to accomplish in life.
