Much Ado about To-do

 

Who loves lists???

 

I'm working through Sarah Mae's 31 Days to Clean, and Day 6 includes a hint about lists. This got me thinking about to-do lists.

 

  I love to-do lists, and when I was in the work force, I never went a day without one. And as a SAH, I still make lists sporadically.

 

Of course, a list is a great tool, but if your to-do list has become your biggest source of stress, that's bad!

 

Believe it or not, the list itself may be causing your stress, and not the items on it.

 

Here's a few helpful ways to combat list worries:

 

Get Techie

If you've been using the standard paper-and-pencil method religiously for years, it's time for a new leaf. Try an app such as Wrike or Good Todo. If you're too attached to a physical list, try keeping a document saved on your desktop that you update and print out daily. You can dress it up with graphics and fonts to get you motivated.

 

 

Luck of the Draw

 

This is a fun method I use for completing chores. It's great to use with kids, too!

• Write each item on a separate slip of paper, and put the slips in a basket or bowl.
• Draw one slip, complete the item, and discard.
• Repeat until you're all done!

 

Highlights

 

Use highlighters or light colored markers to mark off list items instead of pen or pencil. This way, you can see the items you've completed, and you end up with large blocks of color that signal to your brain that you've accomplished more than you have.

 

The Ten Rule v1.0

This method works better when used for longer periods of time-- like a week-- rather than day-to-day.

• Make a list of the top nine things you need to accomplish this week.
• At number 10, write something fun & rewarding like getting a mani/pedi or taking the kids out for ice cream.
• The trick is, obviously, to complete all ten things in order.

 

The Ten Rule v2.0

 Like with version 1.0, use this over a week or a few days, or for even longer term goals or time consuming projects. You'll need two separate lists for this method.

• Make a list of ten things you want to accomplish. This could be cleaning out your garage or plotting a new flower bed. Title this "List One."
• Pick one item or goal that's really exciting to you, say, shopping for a new piece of furniture for your home. Mark this item off List One, and put it on List Two. If you like, you can replace the marked off item with something else, so long as it's not as exciting to you as what you just moved to List Two.
• You can now complete List One in any order you want, but must complete the entire list before moving on to write and begin work on List Two.
• Keep the cycle going as long as you can! It's a neat way to challenge yourself to complete all those projects you never get around to doing.

Throw it away, throw it away, throw away it, now

 That's right. Throw away your to-do list for at least one day. Trust me. If it's important, you'll most likely remember it without the list. Without a list as your taskmaster, you'll have the time and space to be creative and play. You may feel a totally lost at first, but just let yourself enjoy the freedom. If you see something that needs done, like laundry, do it! If you see something that looks enjoyable, like baking a cake, go for it! You'll alleviate a lot of guilt that comes from spending time on things that aren't "on the list." If this works for you, try and work without a list for a few days. I did, and I haven't made a list in over a month!

 

 

How do you work with to-do lists? Are you better on- or off-list? Leave a comment!

 

How I Got Here, or People are Crazy Part I

I currently have about 17 blog posts in various stages of completion.

I thought I would tell my story of how I came to have a blog. How I came to become something totally different that I was six months ago.

As you can read in this post, I have always liked words. I always like that initial, creative rush after you've processed the creative writing assignments in school. I like to write, but I never wanted to be a writer.

In middle school, I became very good at understanding people. They were fascinating. I could read between the lines and really understand why people did what they do. I was strong in the empathy department. That's when I decided to be a psychologist.

I majored in psychology for one semester. I slept through Intro. I figured if I couldn't stay awake through that class, I needed to explore other majors. I probably Googled "majors like psychology," I don't remember. I do remember going to the the social work department and changing my major. I then spent the next three & half years getting my social work degree-- focusing on child welfare.

After graduation, I moved about an hour & half away from home, and started working as a Child Abuse Investigator. After that I worked in hospice, and after that therapeutic foster care.

I was attempting to find a niche in social work that I could do. I felt that I did a good job in all those positions, but they made me miserable. Not the work, not the people I was working to help, not so much my co-workers, but the people I worked for.

My hubby calls this the "Peter Principle." It states, "You rise to the level of your incompetence." I was working for truly awful people-- really mean, careless, terrible people. People who shred records and ordered their subordinates to recreate them. People who lied to their superiors blatantly. People who had no earthly idea what in tarnation they were doing. Disclaimer: I have had some great supervisors, but their supervisors didn't always measure up.

So after being ignored about a home being potentially dangerous, also known as the final straw, I quit. I quit to be a stay-at-home mommy. I quit to become an expert in everything & nothing. I quit so that some day I could teach my son that there are some things you don't do for money. Did I keep working so that P could have more clothes than he could wear, more toys than he could play with, or trips to Disney World? Or did I quit so that we would have his Mommy, and know from early on what his parents thought were important? It was really a no-brainer in the end.