Feeling 'listless'? There's a remedy for that...

There's a word I've started using with the people I coach that tends to get an immediate flash of recognition: listless. Not in the conventional sense of feeling sluggish or lacking energy, but in a more literal sense: going through a day without a list of tasks that need executing.

The idea is simple: If we don't have a clear sense of what we want to achieve in a given day, the day tends to get filled by other people's priorities rather than our own.

Sound familiar?

The Day that Gets Away from Us

Most people I work with are conscientious, capable and genuinely committed to doing good work. Yet, many of them arrive at the end of the day with a nagging sense that, despite being busy, they haven't actually moved the needle on the things that matter most to them.

What happened? Usually, the same things. Emails arrived and got answered. Colleagues appeared with questions. Meetings ran over. Messages pinged. And the hours seemingly vaporised.

None of this is anyone's fault, exactly. People have legitimate needs, and responding to them feels both necessary and, in the moment, productive. The problem is that being responsive to others is not the same as being purposeful for yourself. And without a clear sense of your own priorities for the day, it is almost impossible to protect time for them.

I'm not talking about a sprawling to-do list, here (something that can create its own kind of overwhelm). What I’m advocating for is a list of the two or three things that are urgent and important and, if you achieved them today, would make the day feel genuinely worthwhile. Think of it as a declaration of intent.

When you know what you're aiming for, you have something to return to. A meeting finishes early - you know what to do with the time. An email lands - you can decide whether it genuinely needs your attention now, or whether it can wait. The list becomes a kind of compass. Without it, you are navigating according to the requests of others.

A Small Habit with a Big Return

The practice itself takes very little time. Many people find that taking just a couple of minutes. You can do it at the end of the working day (for the following day) or first thing in the morning before opening email or messaging apps become active. The goal is to identify your top two or three priorities. Ideally, these tasks will be scheduled into your calendar, giving your brain confidence that a task ‘is not done, but it will be done’. Tasks of higher importance and urgency may swallow up this time but, generally speaking, scheduling tasks makes it much more likely things will get done during the working day. The concept of ‘time-blocking’ is important, and something I’ll return to in a future newsletter. 

Committing to specific tasks gives clarity and creates agency. When we know what we want to accomplish, we naturally begin to make small decisions throughout the day that protect that goal. Conversely, when without that clarity, even the best intentions tend to evaporate under the pressure of incoming demands.

Countless people I've coached have told me that this single habit - this tiny act of daily intention-setting - has been more immediately useful to their productivity and sense of accomplishment.

A Deeper Point

There is something worth reflecting on here that goes beyond productivity tactics. Consistently allowing the day to be shaped entirely by other people's needs tends to erode engagement, enthusiasm and our appetite for work. It can breed a quiet resentment, a creeping sense that your work and your time are not really your own.

The antidote isn't to become unresponsive or selfish. It's to show up each day with a clear sense of what you are there to do - and to let that guide you, even as you remain helpful and available to others.

The days that feel most satisfying are rarely the ones where you responded to the most requests. They're the ones where you did the things that mattered.

Start with a list.

WHAT WORKS

Either at the end of the working day (for the following day) or first thing in the morning, take a couple of minutes to write down the two or three things that would make today feel genuinely worthwhile. Ideally, schedule these tasks into your calendar, as this makes it much more likely they will get done within the working day.