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Benjamin Franklin is the
godfather of the to-do list.

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He would create detail lists of
everything that he needed to do

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and what time he would get it done.

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He would start his day with prayer
and personal hygiene and planning.

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After a long day of work he
would wrap it up with a review

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of what was done that day.

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The challenge is that most of
us have lists that have grown

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completely out of control.

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Every day our list grows longer and
longer and it's harder to manage.

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So do lists actually work.

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On today's episode, I'm going to share
with you how to tame your to-do list,

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how to think about your to-do list, and
actually use a list to get more done.

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I'm Amin Ahmed, and welcome
to Be Well, Do Well.

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The first thing I want to talk about
is that your to-do list is not a plan.

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Someone once told me that your to-do
list is sort of like a grocery list.

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It's all the things that you need.

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Whereas your daily plan
is like your meal plan.

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So you wouldn't just go to the grocery
store and just grab random things

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off the shelf, come home, and then
sit there and go, All right, what

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am I gonna make with all of this?

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I mean, some of you might, but
generally speaking, you have a meal

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plan and then you get the ingredients
that you need for that meal.

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Otherwise, what happens is that you
end up with missing ingredients, for

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example, or too much of something,
or too little of something.

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Your to-do list is sort of like that.

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Once you've got a plan, maybe a
daily, quarterly, weekly, monthly,

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annual, even your life plan, then
you can start bringing it back in

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towards your day and decide well,
from that giant plan that I have.

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Let's say your plan is to get
50 new clients this month.

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Well, if your plan is to get 50 new
clients and you break it all down, you

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say, okay, what do I need to do every
in order to get closer to my goal.

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So your to-do list is really just
the itemized things that need to be

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done that support your overall plan.

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So now that you've got this
idea that your to-do list is

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not actually your daily plan.

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Let's now talk about why it's so difficult
sometimes to get these things done.

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I may have talked about this before
on a previous episode about this idea

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of chronotypes, and I love this idea.

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I read this in a number of different
books, and the way a chronotype works is

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that it's your energy compared to other's.

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And so generally speaking, you've
got your days that you wake

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up and then you go to sleep.

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That's considered your circadian
rhythm, whereas your chronotype

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defines your energy within that day.

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So the 24 hours you've got, what time
you wake up and what time you go to

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sleep, that's your circadian rhythm.

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But inside of those 24 hours have
a lot more energy, sometimes in the

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beginning, sometimes in the middle,
sometimes at the end of the day,

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and where your energy is and your
pattern that defines your chronotype.

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There's generally three
types of chronotype.

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The first is your morning
larc, that's your early bird.

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Those are the ones that get up very
early between five and let's say seven.

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Then you've got kind of the later morning
birds, those we refer to as the dove.

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And the dove is where you're sort of
a morning bird, but you're gonna be

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waking up just a little bit later.

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And then in the other end of the
spectrum, you've got your night owl.

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You're sleeping late, you're waking up
late, and your energy is very different

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compared to your lark and your dove.

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We've got a quiz on our website,
so you can go ahead and head over

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there to bewelldowell.fm and there's
a chronotype quiz that you'll

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answer a number of questions.

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So I think there's 19 question.

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Answer those questions and it'll actually
tell you exactly which chronotype you are.

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Once you know that you're either a morning
lark or a dove or a night owl, what you

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can do is then you can plan your day.

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Remember all the items
that you have in that list.

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Now you can take that and you can
plan your day based on when you

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naturally have the most energy.

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This is so important because you wanna
make sure that you're actually working

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when you have the energy to work.

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So if you are a morning lark,
like me, I wake up quite early.

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If 5:00 AM I'm awake
before my kids are awake.

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I've got two hours to get some work
done, and that's when I have the most

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amount of creative energy and focus
is the first thing in the morning.

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So between five and seven, that's when
I'm the most productive and creative.

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Then later in the morning, I move
over to more admin related tasks,

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and in the afternoon after lunch.

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I'm useless.

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When one o'clock runs, rolls around
between noon and two o'clock.

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I definitely try not to have any
big meetings, try not to make big

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decisions, and it's really hard for
me to create anything at that time.

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But in the evening, as it gets
closer to dinner time and afterwards

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I start getting more energy.

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And that's the time when I start to
use that energy not for work cause

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I've already ended my work day.

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I use that energy towards
connection with friends and family.

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Those are the things that I do when I
have that type of energy in the evening,

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A night owl is actually
flipped upside down.

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They have a lot more energy in
the morning to connect with people

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and do those sorts of things.

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But in the evening is when they
have the most amount of energy

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to do creative work and regular,
you know, daily job type work.

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Take The quiz on the website.

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You'll learn a lot about yourself,
whether you're a morning clerk

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or a dove or a night owl.

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And then you can download our planner
as well, which has a little strip along

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the side and it shows you when your
energy is gonna be the most and least.

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If you have, so let's say you have
meetings, you wanna plan those?

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Not for me, not after lunch, when I
have the least amount of energy and

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I'm just not feeling myself and I'm not
present, but plan it near the end of

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my day or maybe right after breakfast.

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If you plan your work when you have
the most amount of energy, you'll find

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that you'll actually get more done.

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Combine this with other techniques
like deep work and focus, and maybe

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using music to get you into a rhythm
of working without any distractions.

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But the main thing I'm trying to
get here is that if you work, when

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you have the right amount of energy
and the right type of energy, you'll

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definitely get more done, and you'll
find that your to-do list actually

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starts to shrink and shrink and shrink.

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Recap here would be that your to-do
list is not the same as your daily plan.

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Your grocery list is not
same as your meal plan.

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Think of it that way, and it'll be
a lot easier to understand when to

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make a to-do list, when to make a
plan, and how they connect together.

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Second point is that you
need to know your chronotype.

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If you are a morning lark or a dove or
a night owl, plan your work around the

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time that you have the most amount of
energy and the right types of energy.

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And lastly, work when you have
energy, just like I mentioned with the

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chronotypes, is that get your work done
when you have those types of energy,

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focus, creative, administrative,
and you'll end up getting a lot

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more done and your list will shrink.

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You can download the planner on our
website and you can do the quiz on our

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website as well bewelldowell.fm and I'll
put a link in the show notes down below.

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I hope this has been helpful for you.

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On our next episode, we're gonna
tie into this a little bit and talk

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about why you feel tired throughout
the day, even though you may be

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getting a lot of sleep at night.

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I hope you join me tomorrow.

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Thanks again for making the Be
Well, Do Well Podcast a part of

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your day and I'll see you tomorrow.