Thursday, May 14, 2009

Lists. . .

I was trained to make lists. My mom did detailed lists starting at 5:30 .m. with time limits for each project, ending at 10:00 p.m. or whenever it was that she went to bed and crossed things off as they were done. She was a stay-at-home-mom and was busy. She even scheduled naps!!

I tried that..didn't work. I allowed too many things to creep in=between the lines or I just didn't have enough foresight. So I tried just long daily lists. By the end of the day very little was crossed off the list and needless to say I felt a bit like Shawn who says almost daily "I didn't get anything done!!" And I wonder what he did all day (me, too!!)

My next trial list was to start out the day with a blank sheet and to add things as I accomplished them and cross them off. That gave me a feeling of accomplishment but I still had silent lists in my head of "thousands" of things still now done.


Then I tried on Sunday night making a list for the whole week and try each night to find the things that need to be done the next day. Still, I just don't seem to make it.

Well this last week I have been shooting for a project, and I can downsize it as time permits, that I can actually see getting done. This morning it was cleaning the inside of my van. It was dirty so when I was done it looked dang good. I mopped my filthy tile tonight. I have gone through my music, I have helped Gea start to de-junk her room. There are other boring things but to me have been small milestones. Oh, there are still piles and piles of things I want to do, can do, should do and have to do, but the small have-dones sure feel good as well. Maybe only one or two crossed out things on my lists is good!!

I'll still do lists. It's ingrained in me. I am changing how I look at what actually gets done. It's all good as Jasmine would say.

1 comment:

Krista said...

Now I know where I got it! Grandma R. is the reason I'm so insane about lists!