Ditching to-do lists for daily goals and intentions is one of the best things I’ve done for my productivity.

For years, I operated with a to-do list. Each day, a new series of tasks would pile up. As my responsibilities at work grew, so did my to-do list.

At its peak, I had three pages covered in tasks that I needed to do. It didn’t take long for the stress of drowning in tasks to overwhelm me.

When everything started to fall apart and I could no longer keep up with my never ending list of things to do, I decided to drastically change the way I worked. I switched from a daily to-do list to a daily goals and intentions system.

If you dread your Mondays, then you’re doing it wrong. Personally, I live for Mondays. It’s the Wednesdays and Thursdays I dread.

When I was younger, I never really understood the collective hate for Mondays. The other kids hated Mondays because it meant they’re back at school. The adults hated Mondays because it meant they’re back to work while the Internet showed their hate of Mondays with memes.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are my dreaded days because it meant that the end of the week is near. There is still so much to dream, to do and to achieve.

What I found different from my experience of Mondays from those who hate them is that I see Mondays as a chance to start and continue the things I want to do and love.

It’s been two weeks since I’ve deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone.

I could have deleted the two addictive, dopamine inducing apps from my life completely by deleting my accounts but I didn’t — purely because I still want to keep in contact with certain people through the apps and I still use it for work.

No. Deleting my accounts would be too extreme, like a smoker deciding to go cold turkey. Besides, Facebook and Instagram have become spaces where a copy of all my important photos live.

Back in high school, right after lunch and during form class check-ins, we were forced to read at least 10 minutes every day. It was a school wide policy to lift comprehension and literacy skills. Everyone had to do it. At precisely 1:30pm, the school would be completely silent as everyone — teachers included — did their daily minimum of 10 minutes.

It would take approximately 2–3 weeks to finish a book as a result of those minimum ten minutes. In a school term, everyone would have read at least 4 to 7 books. That’s 16 to 28 books in a year.

10 minutes doesn’t sound like much and it isn’t. And it was in those 10 minutes each day that introduced me to novels and worlds, ideas and stories that helped shape my mind.