It took me a while to get this through my head, but I have finally learned that I get a lot more done if I write down the "to-dos" first. I can keep short lists in my head, but I tend to forget things or randomly re-prioritize, which leads to forgotten grocery items, neglected household chores and unnecessary last-minute deadlines.
At the risk of boring you to death, I'm going to post my latest household to-do list, in part to pressure myself into hurrying up with all of the tasks. My goal is to have all of them taken care of before next Monday (or Thanksgiving at the absolute latest):
- Find all of Trillian's adoption paperwork before her vet appointment on Saturday morning. It's somewhere in the piles of junk on or below my desk.
- Dig up medical receipts from the past two months to prove to my flexible spending plan that they're legitimate.
- Divide my band's current songs into three set lists.
- Type up grant application paperwork from my Soroptimist Club and e-mail copies to non-profits I know that might want to apply.
- Buy this year's Salvation Army kids' gifts for donation.
- Get a different style of toilet paper holder for the guest bathroom and install it. Spackle the many holes in the wall created by my attempts to install the last one and finish with some touch-up painting.
- Buy solar salt for the water softener and dump it in.
- Install the new ceiling fan I bought for our bedroom a couple of months ago.
None of these things is going to be particularly difficult or time-consuming - they just need to be done and crossed off.
Then I'll be moving on to my Christmas shopping list. I don't usually do this, but I happen to have been purchasing gifts one at a time all year long, so I'm at least a third of the way through with my shopping already. I have ideas for everyone else (except my husband), so the rest should be easy.
But first I'll need to pick up some groceries on my way home tonight. Eh, I think I'll just wing it.
I am a chronic list maker. I have them on index cards, my iPod, notebooks, you name it. There is something so satisfying about crossing things off them.
Posted by: CW | November 11, 2009 at 08:29 AM