The List That Changed My Workdays: Why Tracking My “Done’s” Feels Better Than To-Do’s

Every day, my desk fills with a growing list of things I need to do for Printed Echoes Creations, from refining product descriptions to sketching new ideas, to checking in with the community.

The trouble is, these tasks aren’t the once-and-done kind. They require regularity, consistency, and showing up again tomorrow.

Which means… the list never ends.

For the longest time, this left me feeling like I hadn’t done enough. Even after hours of work, I’d close the day with that nagging thought: Am I even making progress?

But yesterday, something shifted.

 

From To-Do’s to Done’s

I sat down and, instead of writing what I had to do, I wrote what I had already done. A quiet experiment, almost accidental.

 

And what happened next surprised me...!

As the list grew, so did my sense of satisfaction.

It reminded me of a treadmill calorie counter, you say you’ll stop at 800 kcal, but when you see the number climbing, you want to keep going. Or like a savings account: watching the numbers increase is its own kind of reward.

By the end of the afternoon, my page wasn’t full of unchecked boxes. It was full of proof. Progress in ink.

And for once, instead of feeling like I was drowning in “not enough,” I felt light, satisfied, proud.

 

 

Why It Works (and Why You Might Need It Too)

 

Psychologists often talk about celebrating small wins as the key to motivation.

When you only track what’s left undone, your brain only sees lack.

When you track what’s done, you build momentum: a tangible reminder that you are moving forward.

It’s the same philosophy that inspires slow living: shifting focus from what we’re chasing to what we’re experiencing in the moment. Instead of productivity as a race, it becomes a ritual, a rhythm you sustain over time.

And rituals are what we celebrate here at PEC. Whether it’s lighting a candle at your desk, journaling after a long day, or sending a simple card to remind someone they matter, each act builds a quiet form of progress.

Researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer call this the progress principle: the simple truth that when we notice even a small win in our day, our mood, energy, and creativity all rise.

Their study, published in Harvard Business Review, found that people were happiest and most motivated on the days when they could see themselves making progress — no matter how tiny the step.

It’s proof that momentum isn’t built on finishing everything at once; it’s built on noticing the little markers that remind us, I am moving forward.

 

 

The Invitation: Try a Done List

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• A to-do list tells you how far you have left to go.
• A done list shows you how far you’ve already come.

 

What if, tomorrow, you started your day not with a list of demands, but with a page ready to receive your proof of progress?

Try it for one week. Keep the paper close by, write down every small step, and see if it shifts your mood at the end of the day.

You might find, as I did, that progress isn’t about catching up. It’s about writing down what’s already here.

 

Slow living is about more than pace, it’s about perspective.

 

If this reflection resonates, you may enjoy our Whispers of Fall capsule, created around the poetry of fall itself, a season that invites us to pause, look closely, reflect, and simply be here in the moment.

And if you’d like more gentle reflections like this one, along with a free journaling prompt and 10% off your first PEC order, join our Echoes newsletter.

Because sometimes, all you need is to write it down, and see how far you’ve already come.