Wednesday, December 13, 2017

To-Do List


So. It’s Wednesday already. Sometimes I feel like time is a freight train bearing down on me, threatening to squash me on the rails. I had a discussion recently with a friend about having a daily ‘to-do’ list when we were younger. We both admitted we were so anal about it if we did a thing that wasn’t on the list we would add it and cross it out. 

Well, seems like nowadays I make a list that might cover what I want to do by the end of the week (not the day) and I may or may not get to it all - both items even. 

Of course, in this modern age it’s a fancier list - typed on my computer. I can do specialized itemization. I can designate the importance of a task by color or organize with • bullet point, or BOLD type or italicized. This enhancement capability does make my list appear to be much more serious and important and that’s really what matters now. After all, in the Matrix it’s appearance that counts. Right? 

Nevertheless, I concede in complete frustration that time gets away from me and the strikethrough function often gets put on hold. (I may or may not have stooped to backspacing to erase a task in order to make my list seem more completed but I submit that there is no proof of this). 

As I have progressed on my timeline, I have noticed that not only is the list shorter, it’s decidedly less manic and certainly less physical. Which, in my humble opinion, is a good thing. No more notations about building a cabinet or painting an 8‘X30’ mural. Some things you just let go without so much as a whimper.

In truth, my to-do list is less about things that must be done and more a nudge to keep my brain charged. It might include ‘practice Uke’ and ‘write’ and ‘read book’ and ‘do laundry’. One might conclude from this sampling that I am not a busy person but then one might be wrong too. Life happens, especially when you are close to your family. Things come up that do not make the list, ought not to be recorded anywhere, and therefore cannot be counted. 

I also have a back up (long range) to-do list which some refer to as a ‘bucket list’ but I just see it as those things I absolutely intend to do. Like - ‘finish the two titles in the queue’ and ‘finish soundtrack for the Alzheimer’s video project’.  

But I find that thing about time being a train is definitely a concern to keep in the forefront. When time goes from the light at the end of the tunnel to ‘oh my, it really is a train!’ one can’t squander too much of it making and checking lists. One has to just do and let the to-do list manage itself.

For Him,

Meema

2 comments:

  1. Today I wrote a note and placed it on the counter to remind me to tend the wood stove. (We were having some work done in the house, so this is the first week we've used it since last winter, and it had been purged from my memory as a thing-to-do.)
    A few years ago I started buying very small day planners so there would be fewer lines for each day. When I run out of lines in a square, I either have to erase something or push something off onto another day. Oddly enough, this has been very helpful, which shows how completely controlled I am by my lists.

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    1. LOL!

      My serious list making, at the critical point, became something of an obsession turned dark into obligation. I seemed that I owed the list.

      I’ve come to suspect there is a biological explanation and includes addiction to the endorphin release that comes from seeing that last thing crossed off. Productive! Successful! It’s a rush for sure. I admit I still experience lingering sensations of ‘sense of achievement’ when I get all my laundry done, washed, dried, folded, put away - in a single day. The mind is a terrible thing. :-)

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