How a To-Do List Can Help You Meditate Better

Has it ever happened to you that when you try to meditate, your mind immediately starts thinking about everything else but meditation? 

You sit down, take a few breaths, and all of a sudden the mind starts worrying, planning, and thinking about everything you need to do during the day.

• Buy groceries
• Do the laundry
• Answer emails
• Take the dog for a walk
• Go to the car wash
• Book a flight

And the list goes on and on.

Everything feels important, so you keep trying to remember it all for later while at the same time you are trying to concentrate. 

Who hasn’t experienced that?  I know I have, countless times.

And the reason is simple.

When we are going through our daily activities, rushing from one thing to the next, we have no time to think or plan anything.  But as soon as we stop and start to experience some calm, we become aware of all the aspects of our lives that need our attention.  

And of course, everything feels important because it is important.  We can't just put aside our tasks, projects, or commitments, right?

But then, how are we supposed to experience the calm of meditation if all we are doing is mentally planning our day?

The benefit of a to-do list for meditation

Well, the solution is really simple: keep a to-do list. 

Keeping a to-do list frees the mind from the constant effort of remembering what you need to do, allowing you to concentrate more easily during meditation.  

But this means you need to take a moment and plan your day.  If you never give yourself the time to plan your day, your mind will inevitably use your meditation time for it.

You could write your to-do list in the morning, in the evening, before going to bed, or whenever you find the time. 

Once you’ve created your to-do list, you just need to ensure that it’s always up to date.  Checking it a couple of times during the day, and maybe looking at it once more before you sit to meditate, should be enough.

This habit has helped me immensely to relax and stay focused during my meditation sessions.

Of course, new tasks still pop up while I’m meditating. But since most of them are already written down, it’s easier to detach and allow myself to forget.

Yes, that’s right. Even if it’s an important task, I don’t worry about it.

I know I’ve already done my best by keeping my to-do list updated. My priority at that moment is my meditation, and detaching from the external world is part of it.

The task will surely come back to me later in the day when it actually matters. And if it doesn’t, then it probably wasn’t that important anyway. Right?

I hope this little habit makes your meditation easier, too.  It's super easy to implement, and it'll help not just your meditation but your life in general.  If you give it a try, feel free to share your experience in the comment section below.

The main reason why we can’t concentrate

Now, thinking about our daily activities is a common reason why we get distracted during meditation, but it’s not the only one.  

There is another very common reason that not many people know about, but it has a huge influence on our meditation practice.  

In fact, I think it’s probably the main reason we struggle to stay focused during each session.  It can even make us believe that we simply don’t have the capacity to concentrate.

If you want to learn what it is and make sure you’re doing everything you can to progress in your practice, I suggest you read my previous article  “Can’t Stay Focused During Meditation? It’s Probably Not What You Think.”