So that the New Year can get off to a good start

The Kehraus describes the last dance that leads out of the ballroom and the long evening gown sweeps the dance floor. Whether it’s a state banquet, carnival or carnival – the Kehraus symbolizes the end.

Even if your to-do list seems endless at the moment, full to the brim with many professional obligations and private pleasures, now would be the right time to tidy it up. Most changes take place under pressure.

To do or Not to do

Not a day at GloriousMe without a to-do list. Regardless of the format, electronic or on paper, a to-do list helps you to keep track of important and current items and to work through them consistently.

But here too, less is often more. Even if there is a lot of truth in the saying “No pain, no gain”, it is also true that in the end there is no price for diligence.

Energy giver or energy thief

Not everything in life is a concert of wishes, but there is often more freedom than we think to critically sift through the items on our to-do list.

Typical items that can move from the daily to-do list to the not-to-do list are, for example:

• Tasks that receive no appreciation, not even from ourselves
• Routines that we no longer question
• Dates with people who cost us an incredible amount of energy and who still feel constantly neglected by us
• Christmas parties that focus on quantity rather than quality
• Birthday wishes and Christmas cards for colleagues or acquaintances who don’t know the word thank you

We all have a good sense of what we no longer want to see on our to-do list. Often a seemingly endless recitation of a task is an indicator that it could be done without.

Turn the to-do list upside down

The last items on a to-do list are not always unimportant. Most people are so reliable that they always prioritize duties that they perform for others and put issues that are important to them personally at the bottom of the list.

So the important personal letter that you want to take the time and leisure to write remains unwritten and is recited over and over again for weeks and months.

So the piano piece with which you want to give someone special pleasure remains unpracticed for the quiet hours that never come.

Turn your to-do list upside down from time to time and start early in the morning with what is particularly important to you. Completing this task often gives you twice the energy for the rest of the day.

The new fresh calendar

We are currently eagerly awaiting the UPS courier to deliver the new 2023 calendar inserts. In the spirit of the circular economy, the fine leather agenda has served us well for decades and only needs a new inlay.

In retrospect, the paper calendar for the private topics also serves as a kind of diary in short form.

Our firm resolution for the coming New Year is to enjoy the private matters that are close to our hearts more, without feeling guilty about an overflowing to-do list.

No time for the not-to-do list?

For anyone who thinks they really don’t have time for the to-do list rush in hectic December, we recommend Monocle magazine’s interview with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

His to-do list is full to the brim with all foreign policy issues and the newly added task of energy supply in the war-torn country.

When asked how he still manages to stay relatively calm and balanced, he replies that his dogs take his mind off things in the evening and he always tries to get enough sleep.

Sleep Procrastination

The long postponement of tasks (which then inevitably end up on the next day’s to-do list) also occurs during sleep. Instead of going to bed in time to get enough sleep, we get tired and do superfluous things without much energy, even if it’s endless scrolling on Instagram.

The only thing that helps is discipline or a good book on the bedside table. Sleep is definitely important if the to-do list really is to become shorter.

The most important thing: self-love

Only when we love ourselves do we show ourselves and our time the appropriate appreciation. Self-love is not to be confused with self-indulgence – Harry and Meghan are responsible for the latter.

A positive aura makes many issues disappear from the to-do list of their own accord. Self-love goes hand in hand with humility before the luxuries we all possess: We belong to the small elite of people in the world who can decide on their daily to-do list at all.

This is another reason why the not-to-do list is so important: it creates time to help others who do not have this luxury and to maintain this strength for as long as possible by allowing ourselves time for leisure and relaxation.

Photographs © GloriousMe