We need more than just a

To-Do List.

To-Do lists are so wonderful—think of something to be done, pull up the list app or get that notebook, and enter the new task. Now we won’t forget! All we need to do is to complete it. But here’s where things get tricky. We’re more skilled at adding to our list than checking items off.

A solution?

How about a second list—a Not-To-Do-Yet list.

What would we put on it? All those time wasters we indulge in: binge-watching shows on Netflix; checking social media and email; chatting with coworkers; shopping across town or online. Too easily do these fill up our day, where we squander away precious time needed for the essentials.

But by using the two lists, we’ll find the time for things on both. In adding our time-wasters to the Not-To-Do-Yet list, we’re not saying we’ll never do them again. Just not right now. First, we’ll do some of those To-Do tasks in our newly carved out time.

Then, feeling good about our accomplishments, we can take a short, predetermined break for non-essential things.

Don’t fret. Just continue with . . .

Guard against the insulation of wealth,

the arrogance of complacency.

A wealthy person is shielded from many of the worries the less fortunate face. How to find a job when her employer closes in a recession. How to pay mounting medical bills when health insurance isn’t available. How to feed his children when food prices keep rising, but hourly pay remains stagnant.

For a wealthy person, it’s a matter of choices, not questions of survival. An existence where, yes, there are conflicts and disappointments, ups and downs, but basic survival issues do not take center stage.

Smug and feeling invincible, many who are wealthy and powerful very easily become arrogant. Convinced that their success is due to their hard work and cleverness, they believe that those who have little just haven’t worked hard enough. Or that they are just plain lazy. Negating any sense of empathy for people who have little, those who have much can advance to having outright disdain for others.

A truly selfish—and tragic—waste of good fortune.