The Top 3 Things List that will change your life
Do you ever feel overwhelmed or have a difficult time accomplishing the things you want to accomplish? You are definitely busy, yet at the end of the day, nothing. You have nothing to show for the busyness. So you make a To Do list, hoping it will keep you on track. Again, at the end of the day, nothing. Well, maybe something. You may have checked “call the vet” off the list and ordered the book you’ve been wanting to read. But what about your art practice or your business? Did you do anything to move it forward? Probably not. It’s time to focus on your Top 3 Things.
There is a better alternative to the “To Do” list. It’s the “Top 3 Things” list and it will change your life. Each day you will start with a list of the top 3 things that you need to do that day to make progress in your art business (or your art practice). These are important things! They do not have to be difficult, but they should be important. Often these are the things that get pushed down the to-do list while you focus on busy work in order to check off as many boxes and tasks as possible. Examples of top 3 things may be to write a blog post, create a video tutorial, create a journaling page or plan out your social media posts. These are the activities that will move your business or practice forward.
One of the 3 things should be THE MOST important for you to accomplish that day, and it is the one you start with. Then if, for whatever reason, it takes longer than expected or life happens, you have completed at least one thing that day to move your business/practice a little closer to your dream.
Personally, I keep a running list of all the things that I want to do, make or try, and I then I plug them into my calendar for the week. Usually, I lay out THE MOST important tasks for each day of the week, and then the other 2 actions are supportive to the main ones. I don’t always accomplish them all. Often, I don’t accomplish them all, but I do work on them every day. One thing, one step, one painting, one dream, one a day.
If your goal is to complete one painting a week, just think of what you will accomplish in a year! 52 paintings. I’m going to guess that most of us haven’t completed 52 paintings in several years, or even a lifetime. You can plug anything in for the word “painting”. Maybe the word “sketchbook” page is more aligned to your goals. Maybe “podcast” is something you would like to start.
Overcoming Fear
This idea or process works for anything that you want to accomplish or complete by prioritizing it over everything else that distracts you from your dream. We are really good at coming up with reasons for not doing something or reasons that we don’t have time for creating. I believe that fear is the thing that keeps us from prioritizing the things that we say we want. Oh. I know. We aren’t AFRAID, we just need to clean the baseboards.
What I have found that helps keep me focused is to stop when the fear starts to creep in, and ask myself if what I am doing right that moment aligns to my goals or if it’s a distraction. 9 times out of 10, it’s a distraction. Distractions are often disguised as important things; however, they always seem to be a struggle to complete. Or take too long. Or don’t work out like we envision. They have a way of making us second guess our hopes and dreams. Fear makes us think that maybe the work isn’t good enough. This is the point when you should stop, and decide if that activity is truly important. I believe these tasks are a struggle BECAUSE they are not aligned to our dreams.
It’s scary to dream big. What if it doesn’t work; then what will our dream be? What if we try and we fail? What will our friends think? My hope is that our friends will be there to pick us up and encourage us to keep going. Most will be disappointed with us-they are not waiting for us to fail. And guess what? You know. They aren’t the people you want around if they don’t support you. Period.
May I be so bold as to say, there isn’t a one-and-done dream. There are a multitude of ways to accomplish the same thing, but you have to start trying them to know which will work. The destination should not be our goal. The journey is the thing that will bring joy to your life. Everyday that I get to make art is a great day. Sure, some days are a bucket full of frustration, procrastination and even fear. But I try to keep those days to “a day” and then the next day, I get back to work on my Top 3 Things list. There are days that you will be happy to simply create color swatches. And that’s okay, you’re still making art, which makes it a great day.
Additional Resources
James Clear has a wonderful book called Atomic Habits in which he teaches in depth about routines and habits. It’s a great read and will set you on the path to developing your own routines and implementing habits that support your dreams and goals.
He has also written numerous articles about productivity and habits. His article about The Ivy Lee Method explains the process of doing the most important thing first every day. One key takeaway from the article is that the method is simple enough to actually work. No need to buy a fancy planner or take the time management course. Simply do the work…and do the most important work first. That’s simple enough to understand. This method also takes procrastination out of the mix. You decide the night before what you are doing the next day, and then you can sit down and start.
So rather than letting fear control your dreams, give the Top 3 Things a try. I promise that you will be glad you give it a chance, and you will accomplish more in a shorter timeframe than you can imagine. It will be a lot more rewarding than checking “clean baseboards” off a to-do list. I would love to hear about what you are able to accomplish after you implement the Top 3 Things!
To help you start, get my Top 3 Things Planner page – You can download it for free here, in the freebie section, or click that button below.
