Thursday, February 5, 2009

Here's What I Don't Like About "To Do" Lists

I never used to be a list maker. In fact I prided myself on my great memory - why make a list when you can remember what needs to be done. Usually my list (when I was working in an office) consisted of a pile. If it was in the pile - it needed to be done. If it wasn't in the pile - it was finished. I didn't need a list b/c my "list" was staring me in the face every day.

After I had my first child - my memory was shot. Must have been all the months with not enough sleep and suddenly having to be responsible not only for myself but now another little person.

So now I make lists. And have a stack of "to do" stuff in piles on my desk. I'm afraid that if I don't physically see something waiting to be finished - it won't get finished.

So now I get to the problem of having a list. It's always staring up at me. And it shows me things that I need to do but haven't finished. All the items are never completely crossed off. Can you tell that I'm a procrastinator?

My husband lives by lists. He can make a list Friday night of all the stuff he wants to get accomplished over the weekend - and by the end of the weekend the list can be totally crossed off! And they are not easy stuff on his list - it might be something like "build a piano bench" or "do car maintenance on both cars, change the oil, wash the cars, clean-out the garage, clean-out the gutters, take a walk, and bake a cherry pie."

Some of the stuff I add to my list doesn't even need to be on the list but I put it there b/c maybe I'll do it "someday" b/c they are good ideas and I don't want to forget about them...yet obviously they are not important enough for me to ever get around to doing.

This afternoon I finally crossed one of the items off my list - hooray! And I'm thinking of crossing off a couple of the "good ideas to do someday" so my list doesn't look so overwhelming.

So...are you a list maker? Do you actually do all the things on your list or just transfer the unfinished list from one month until the next?

3 comments:

Heather said...

My stepfather is like your husband--it drives me insane! I personally hate lists and just keep a general one in my head and do the next thing.

Anonymous said...

Up until recently I never used lists. The reason I make some lists now is that I tend to forget like what I should get at the store. Otherwise I do not make or follow lists.

Jennifer said...

I hate to do lists to because I used to always feel compelled to put EVERYTHING on them.

Then just 2 weeks ago, I read some where in the blogosphere, to just make a list of 6. Six things that you know you can get done in 1 day.

I've done it twice now, and it worked! I have a new list making technique. Now, I wake up and make my list of 6 and then get started.