Worked Examples: The Done List in Action
Theory is useful, but seeing these principles applied to real-world situations makes them more tangible. Let’s explore two common scenarios where a done list and its associated mindset can make a significant difference.
Scenario 1: The Tight Deadline
Imagine Sarah, a project manager with a major report due in 48 hours. She feels a rising sense of panic. The project is huge, and looking at the entire scope is overwhelming. Her to-do list for it is a dozen items long, each one feeling like a mountain.
Instead of staring at the massive to-do list, Sarah decides to use a done list approach. She takes five minutes to break down the very first step into a tiny, manageable chunk: “Create the document outline.” She ignores everything else. She sets a timer for 30 minutes and works only on the outline. When the timer goes off, the outline is finished. She takes a clean sheet of paper and writes her first done list item: “Completed report outline.”
Seeing this first item provides a small jolt of positive reinforcement. The task no longer feels impossible. She then identifies the next small piece: “Write the executive summary draft.” She repeats the process. After another focused session, she adds it to her list. Throughout the day, she continues this cycle: identify a small chunk, work on it with singular focus, and then record its completion. By the end of the day, her done list has ten items on it. She can physically see her progress. The feeling of overwhelm has been replaced by a sense of momentum and control. She’s still on a tight deadline, but now she has concrete evidence that she is capable of meeting it.
Scenario 2: The Noisy Home Environment
Consider Ben, a freelance writer who works from home. His environment is often unpredictable, with family members, pets, and household noises creating constant potential for interruption. He struggles to find long, quiet blocks of time to write and often ends his day feeling frustrated and unproductive.
Ben realizes that waiting for the “perfect” quiet environment is a losing strategy. He decides to adapt using a done list mindset focused on small wins. He starts by identifying “micro-tasks” that can be done in short bursts. Instead of a goal like “write for two hours,” his goal becomes “write one solid paragraph.”
He uses a deep-work entry ritual to make the most of small windows of quiet. When he has 15 minutes, he puts on noise-canceling headphones, opens his writing app (and nothing else), and focuses solely on writing that one paragraph. When he’s done, or when he’s interrupted, he adds “Wrote one paragraph for the blog post” to his done list, which he keeps on a sticky note on his monitor. He also adds other small accomplishments, like “Answered the 3 most urgent client emails” or “Researched one statistic for the article.”
At the end of the day, his list isn’t filled with huge, impressive-sounding tasks. But it is filled. It’s a record of resilience. It shows him that even amidst the chaos, he made tangible progress. This shifts his mindset from “I got nothing done because it was so noisy” to “I managed to accomplish several important things despite the noise.” This builds his sense of effectiveness and reduces his frustration with his environment.
