From WSJ, How Sweatpants Managers Can Stay Motivated:
the ideal high-performance mind-set is a balance between the “blue” functions of the brain (logical and analytical thinking) and its primal “red” functions (powerful feelings and emotions). Too much blue can lead us to overthink things and suffer “paralysis by analysis,” he says, while too much red can make us lose control.
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A to-do list, Dr. Evans says, is basically “blue-brain heaven.” By enumerating tasks, we’re trying to make the way forward seem more logical and linear. But the items on our lists can be profoundly different.
If you need to renew your auto registration, that is a straightforward and logical “blue” job. But if you need to have a painful conversation with a colleague or start looking for a new job, that task carries an emotionally loaded “red” charge.
The fatal flaw of to-do lists is that by ticking off a bunch of blue items, people can convince themselves they’ve made real progress and that it’s OK to skip all the red items that fill them with existential dread.
“Our red minds can’t be silenced,” Dr. Evans says. Ignoring the red stuff leaves a feeling of chronic pressure and tension that is never released and may start to feel permanent. “It creates an emotional burden we carry around day after day,” he says.
Dr. Evans doesn’t think you should scrap your to-do list: he suggests dividing items into red and blue and committing yourself to tackling one red task a day, ideally before noon. “Don’t be a hero,” he says, “just do one.”
It happened way too many times. Often I have a “red” item on my todo list day after day but it’s never got done, and it definitely has a mental cost when I’m doing other things.