Ray Dalio is wrong: You should do your “Like-to-do” list as well

Contemplating the Sea, Florida, USA

Today, on December 23rd, 2021, I read a post by Ray Dalio stating that “All of your must-dos must be above the bar before you do your like-to-dos”.

I respectfully but completely disagree with Ray on this. Humans are not automatons; we are not primed to work "efficiently" and "productively" all the time. We just cannot and should not work on Priority One items continuously. Ask any writer, painter, photographer, artist, architect, or house-wife. Just ask anyone.

For how we define efficiency and productively must encompass and consider a whole body experience. This often requires acknowledging the importance of the imperfect, the laziness, the lethargy, and "unproductive" time. These breaks are vital for maintaining a healthy mind, as the body is complex and requires us to operate in ways that we do not often understand.

But history teaches us that many a creator has often come back from tangents taken to unleash amazing work. We must be allowed—indeed, we must allow ourselves—to take tangents from time to time. We must never become complete slaves of any list, least of all our own "must-do" list.

We must always be open to taking a little pause, a small tangent, if and when it becomes apparent that we need it.

It may be the most "must-do" thing of them all, and the rewards could be commensurate.