# What if you're already on top of things?
URL:: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/donelist
Author:: Oliver Burkeman
## Highlights
> What if you worked on the basis that you began each day at zero balance, so that everything you accomplished – every task you got done, every tiny thing you did to address the world's troubles, or the needs of your household – put you ever further into the black? What if – and personally I find this thought almost unthinkable in is radicalism, but still, here goes – what if there's nothing you ever have to do to earn your spot on the planet? What if everything you actually get around to doing, on any given day, is in some important sense surplus to minimum requirements? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkspfyxxgzn1dbe5ajyq3h))
> I think many of us overlay this instrumental sense of obligation – "in order to have this, you'll need to do that" – with the existential one described above: the feeling that you must get things done, not merely to achieve certain ends, but because it's a cosmic duty you've somehow incurred in exchange for being alive. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkt3vn2bje5vs6r4zmbmww))
> This is why I'm such an enthusiastic proponent of keeping a "done list", which starts empty, first thing in the morning, and which you then gradually fill with whatever you accomplish through the day. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkth9aa1ek5j3yxrg76vxv))
---
Title: What if you're already on top of things?
Author: Oliver Burkeman
Tags: readwise, articles
date: 2024-01-30
---
# What if you're already on top of things?
URL:: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/donelist
Author:: Oliver Burkeman
## AI-Generated Summary
Apparently I struck a chord on Twitter the other day when I observed that many people (by which I meant me) seem to feel as if they start off each morning in a kind of "productivity debt", which they must struggle to pay off through the day, in hopes of reaching a zero balance by the time evening comes.
## Highlights
> What if you worked on the basis that you began each day at zero balance, so that everything you accomplished – every task you got done, every tiny thing you did to address the world's troubles, or the needs of your household – put you ever further into the black? What if – and personally I find this thought almost unthinkable in is radicalism, but still, here goes – what if there's nothing you ever have to do to earn your spot on the planet? What if everything you actually get around to doing, on any given day, is in some important sense surplus to minimum requirements? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkspfyxxgzn1dbe5ajyq3h))
> I think many of us overlay this instrumental sense of obligation – "in order to have this, you'll need to do that" – with the existential one described above: the feeling that you must get things done, not merely to achieve certain ends, but because it's a cosmic duty you've somehow incurred in exchange for being alive. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkt3vn2bje5vs6r4zmbmww))
> This is why I'm such an enthusiastic proponent of keeping a "done list", which starts empty, first thing in the morning, and which you then gradually fill with whatever you accomplish through the day. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hktkth9aa1ek5j3yxrg76vxv))