but first…
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A photo from my massive sales shoot that didn’t get used. (I love that top but it’s just too small to wear comfortably.)
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and this photo brings me to what I want to talk about…
to-do lists. todo lists. grammatically correct or not, they’re the only reason I remember to do anything I meant to do hours or days ago. I have a pretty short attention span (that only seems to be getting worse) and so what I do is largely dictated by whatever pops into my head at the moment.
It’s a great way to waste time (I should know) but not so great if I actually want to get anything productive done. I mean, that actually makes sense to be doing when I’m doing it. I’m a professional procrastinator – want me to do the dishes? Tell me I have to sort through laundry. Whatever I’m supposed to be doing, almost anything else seems more appealing. Which, when it comes down to it, substituting chores for other chores seems like a strange diversion tactic.
But that’s not the point. (See? distractions…)
What I mean is, how do you know what, and how much, to put on your to-do list?
A lot of varied tasks that you might get to at least some, if not most of them?
A short list that you’ll definitely complete, but is somehow lacking in substance?
A bunch of long-term goals you’re never quite sure you’ve finished?
I tend to subscribe to philosophy #1. I have to limit the physical size of my list, otherwise I’ll just end up making lists all day…
Ideally, of course, you’d make a concise list of exactly what you need to get done and all of it is technically feasible for that timeframe. I know all about breaking down large goals into smaller, more easily quantified tasks, but sometimes even that much seems like too much effort XD; So I’ll have a mixed bag kind of list.
I recently bought a (somewhat silly) girly to-do pad, that includes columns for “To Do”, “Calls”, “Errands” and “Misc” – the category above is my “Misc”; it has tended to contain longer-term tasks that are not essential to daily life (like this blog. Sorry, but until someone is paying me to do this it’s way down on the priority list XD;) I’ve found that having to categorize what I’m thinking of doing helps me sort out things I should be doing rather than things I’d either like to be doing, or think would be nice to get done.
I still end up with a lot of overarching megatasks though. (Surprisingly “clean up x room” is not as simple as it sounds on paper.)
In addition, I have a skinny vertically oriented Muji-brand notepad that I have been trying to use for small, daily tasks (i.e. “wash dishes”, “clean makeup brushes”) although occasionally I’ll slip up and add things that really belong on the big sheet of paper.
I’d been pretty good about making/reviewing my lists for a while, and then for some reason stopped in the past few days.
It was a really noticeable change. I have no idea what I accomplished, or whether I even accomplished anything (aside from what I did today, I suppose)! Thankfully I continued to monitor my vitamin use in my desk calendar or I would have had no idea whether I’d taken any of those, either! (And the iron supplement is the most scary of the bunch – easy to overdo and icky consequences. I’d rather skip a day than take two by accident by far.)
It’s funny because the desk calendar was a completely on-a-whim purchase. It was pink, and cheap, and looked pretty decent, so I said “eh, why not.” and I’ve actually been using it a lot to track daily stuff like the vitamins, and my 365 photo progress (checkmarks for having taken photos :D). I occasionally go into compulsive buying fits over stationery stuff so it’s less surprising that I bought it (I will photograph my collection some time…) and more surprising that I’m actually using these things rather than storing them away.
I can’t quite seem to get in the habit of writing something like a blog entry every day, however. My life is just not that interesting XD