How many of us feel like we’re living on repeat, stuck in the rat race but never really getting ahead?

We look back at our day, exhausted, and we can’t even see where we’ve made an impact because we’ve just been reacting all day to the to-do list, running from one thing to the next, but never feeling fulfilled or accomplished.

It’s almost always the case that we will end our days with more that we could do than we have time for.  Maybe you got to Inbox Zero, but The To Do List will never be empty.  There will always be more that we can do – in every area of our life, every single day.  Coming to terms with this is very freeing because now we shift from pursuing the impossible pursuit of To Do List Zero and think about what we do with the time we have.

What if we accepted the reality that our inbox will never be clear?  That the to-do list will always have something on it?   

When we accept this reality, we free ourselves to choose the pursuit of the things that make the biggest impact – from the meetings and projects that matter most at work to the life moments we can never get back.

If we stop to pause and really think about how we’re spending our time, we can be more intentional about what we focus on.  We can take time to reflect on where we’ve been, celebrating the wins along the way, seeing our impact and better understanding our own value and the meaning of our work.

So the question becomes, if the to-do list doesn’t have to be cleared today, what will you make a priority?