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The New “To-Do List” for Entrepreneurs

Katherine Newburgh, PhD
4 min readJan 21, 2020

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Boxes you’ll be excited to check off

Jose Luis Sanchez Pereyra, Unsplash

Kristen Bell says she has long-ago dispensed with to-do lists. She said she gave them up because she always put more stuff on there than she could reasonably get done. So she ended every day feeling like a failure.

This woman, who is by all indications extremely sensitive if not a full-blown empath, suffers from anxiety and perfectionism- two things I can relate to intimately. I thought, “if this system worked for her, maybe it will work for me.”

So for awhile I followed her lead and stopped making to-do lists. I have no shortage of motivation, and I figured that with this new system the most important tasks would bubble to the surface, and I’d always be spending my time on necessary things.

I bumped along ok for awhile. I definitely felt less anxiety. But once and awhile small things would fall through the cracks or get pushed off, and, as anyone tending to a start-up can tell you, this isn’t the greatest way to grow your brand.

Then one day I woke up early. I’d committed myself to 6:30AM crossfit, and I was determined to follow through. The result was that I was sitting, fully energized, in front of my computer by 7:45 AM, a time I am normally rolling out of bed.

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Katherine Newburgh, PhD
Katherine Newburgh, PhD

Written by Katherine Newburgh, PhD

Kate Newburgh, Ph.D, top writer in Leadership. Books, resources, and consultations to promote thriving for teams and individuals: www.booksofeden.com

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