The “To Stop” List

Do you have a “To Stop List.” I have been teaching this concept for years, and you can read the full article explaining this topic here.

I taught this concept at the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Business, and my mid-career students learned that if they identified the things in their lives they wanted to stop and put them in a spreadsheet, they were empowered to stop wasting their time, and with their time freed up they could do more things that were more valuable to them and their companies. Peter Drucker and Marshall Goldsmith have both lectured on “To Stop Lists.”

Think about it. A to-do list is like a cup of coffee. The to-do’s are the coffee, and you are the coffee cup. You keep pouring more and more coffee into that cup, making a big mess.

Start today. Make your to-stop list, and for fun, you can use double negatives and put on your to-stop list:

Not Exercising for at least 30 minutes 3x per week.

You can put people on your To Stop List.

Your first list will be very long if you put down all the items you really want to stop doing. Nothing is too “small” to put on the list. Over time, as you update your “to stop” list, success will become clear as the list becomes shorter and shorter. When you actually stop doing something, when you review your list monthly or quarterly, take the item off your “To Stop List".”

Start today. The “to stop” list is your path to doing what you want to do, doing what is most valuable to you in your life, and it is made possible by your stopping doing what you do not want to do and stopping doing what is not valuable for you in your life.