Power of the Lookback
Don’t forget… the impact you have, the milestones you achieve, your superpowers to celebrate.
I hear it ALL THE TIME, in conversations with clients, friends and even in my own head.
“I’m not being productive.”
“I’ve gotten nothing accomplished.”
“I’m so behind.”
“I’ve got nothing to show for my time / effort / energy.”
Wow - none of those feel good. Do any of them feel familiar to you?
And often, they aren’t true. We’ve created a story in our head that the little boxes next to our Urgent / Important / Not Urgent / Not Important tasks MUST be checked in order to feel productive, accomplished, ahead and fruitful in our time, effort and energy.
We are constantly filled with the productivity myth that our accomplishments and achievements are tied to how busy and productive we are.
And this causes our brains to totally misrepresent what we do actually accomplish.
Enter the Reverse To Do List - a way that I’ve broken through my own cycles of feeling productivity-inadequate, especially as I shifted into full-time entrepreneur mode last spring.
The Reverse To Do List process is really easy and usually takes about 10-15 minutes.
1 - Take a sheet of paper and mark the paper 1-10.
2 - Think back to the past period of time of your choosing.
I typically try for the last 10-12 weeks, but if this is your first time working with this approach, feel free to use the last 12 months (all of 2023).
3 - Add things that you remember you accomplished.
When you get stuck, shift to your calendar. (Be careful here - sometimes opening up apps like calendars or email can derail the Reverse To Do List experience.)
Anything is fair game to include.
For me, my past Reverse To Do Lists have included things like:
Events I’ve attended
Events I’ve hosted
Work meetings I’ve led
Work goals or metrics I met
Crucial conversations I’ve had
Number of times I walked the kids to school (my new non-negotiable)
Meals with friends
Number of new people I met (well over 100 in 2023)
Vacations I’ve taken (YES, please include these!)
Birthdays I celebrated
There’s so much that you can do with this “data” collected in one place. The first and easiest thing is to really look at the list and celebrate what you’ve accomplished.
Other things you can do with this “data”:
Reflect on how each of these accomplishments made you feel
Map out the next steps on any of these that are milestones on a larger journey
Identify new vacations or trips that you want to take
Notice where our time went and ask yourself if this is in alignment with any larger goals you’ve identified
Fill in any holes you see when you draft your next to-do list to ensure upcoming milestones will be accounted for
What the Reverse To Do List does:
Allows you to pause to celebrate accomplishments and milestones that you might have not done before.
Audit your time and energy without relying solely on your thinking brain
Helps you sift through what’s actually important to you and where you’ve truly spent your time
I use this method 4-5 times per year, often after a big push and recovery period - like post-NYE, at the end of my kids’ school year, when summer break ends, after Halloween and whenever I’m feeling the urge to tell myself “I’m so behind” or “I’ve been totally unproductive.”
The spirit of this exercise is to look back at what I’ve truly accomplished. I let the list span business and personal - it all gets to be included.
I also find this experience helps define my upcoming to-do list.
Either I notice items that I can choose to continue refining or developing, or I see patterns about where I’ve spent my time.
Choices start to bubble up.
Did I want to spend my time on that item?
Does how I spent my time align with my overall goals?
I hope you find the tool as powerful as I do.