Tuesday, August 9, 2011

To-Do Lists: Good or Evil?

I consider myself the queen of procrastination.  I have it down to a science at this point...put off everything I possibly can until the very last minute and then stress myself out while I scramble to complete everything by its required timeline.  That is just the items that have a timeline!  As for the projects, phone calls, miscellaneous errands that can be done at any time? Forget about it....they will sit and collect dust on my poor little to do list.

So, is the to-do list good or evil?  I suppose it's a little of both.  I do get through the items that need to be done and, if nothing else, it is a good reminder list for me of the things I want to do or need to do sometime in the near or distant future.  I think it becomes a bit evil when the sheer volume of items on the list becomes so great that it creates a greater stress in my life than I would have without it.  Sometimes I will make out a list for the week and the number of items is so great that I don't want to do any of them...so they sit and collect dust until I must tackle them or else I just keep shuffling them until I feel like checking one off.  I'd say the to-do list is both friend and foe.  It just depends on what is on the list at time.

In my reinvention, I am trying to decide how I want to handle these lists.  I think I am going to start only putting 3-5 items that I need to get done per week on my list and have a "backup list" for the rest of the items.  Once the main list is cleared, others can be added.  I learned this technique from zenhabits.net. An excellent website that I've been reading for awhile now.  So, that is my goal. To make my list more good than evil...more friend than foe.

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