Are you the kind of person who puts things on your to-do list that you’ve already done so that you can check them off?

I think we all have a little bit of that in us.

But guess what? This helps us feel good because every time you cross something off your checklist, it releases a hit of dopamine, the feel-good hormone. Who doesn’t want some of that?

Instead of writing down and ticking things off the list that you’ve already done, what if you instead ticked off all of the things on your list today and tomorrow and every day next week and kept on doing that? Now that’s taking massive action on your goals and dreams!

There are usually two reasons why people can’t get through their to-do list.

Reason #1

Many people have things on their list that they wouldn’t actually be able to tick off for weeks or months. It’s so discouraging to work and work and work on something and not be able to check it off. If this resonates with you, you might have projects on your list instead of tasks. According to David R. Allen of Getting Things Done, a project is anything that takes two or more steps to complete. A task is one of the steps. Review your list. If you have projects on there, replace them with the next step in the project. Once you complete the task, add the next task to your to-do list. If you want, you can have a separate list of your projects so you don’t feel like you’ll lose track of your projects.

By putting tasks, not projects on your list, you’ll be able to check off many more things (yay for more dopamine!). You’ll also feel a greater sense of accomplishment, like you’re making progress, and you’ll build momentum.

Reason #2

Many people have things on their to-do list that they know they need to do and how they need to do it but they just aren’t doing them. Procrastinating. Feel familiar?

If you don’t want to procrastinate, that’s where a life and business coach is so valuable. The coach can ask questions to get to the root of what’s happening. Inaction is usually caused by two things. The first is overwhelm, and most often that’s because you haven’t broken your project down into tasks (see above). The second is a limiting belief or fear keeping you stuck. The coach’s questions will uncover some gold nuggets and a-ha moments that will help you kick-start change. And when you uncover what has been holding you back, watch out!