Never Be Listless

(I was thinking of doing a rant on the joys of traveling, but nobody likes a whiner, and what I do would be a lot worse if I had to drive all that way, so I am ok with travel even when it's not timely.)

I have been thinking about the value of lists, especially to-do lists and lists of accomplishments--they are the same thing most of the time. The exception is one of those days where all you got done was making the list in the first place. I make lists each week, and, of late, for any trip I take. Now you might think my attachment to lists is related to a weakening memory, but I just get too much satisfaction out of checking off the completed items to believe that. It's that positive feeling that keeps me coming back, not just to keep from forgetting.

I also spend less time deciding what to do next. I usually put some priority on the list--A means "do it today if there's time." B is "do this tomorrow or the next day, just not today," and C is "some day, maybe." Initial listing of the C's doesn't include the "maybe, but after transferring a C from one old list to a new one a couple of times, the maybe just shows up in my head. A lot of my C's turn into "never going to do's," but they would haunt me if I didn't use the power of the list to reach that conclusion. Turning into a "some day, maybe" is the first step. Sometimes I will promote a C to a B to try to get it done. If I move it back to C, that is usually the second stage of preparing to drop it altogether. So lists can help me decide what not to do, too.

I usually put a sheet nearby to capture the fleeting urge that is incipient motivation, if it occurs to me I need to do something AND I put it on my list, then I am motivated enough to do something. For example, there's .... Oops, now I have to dig my to do list out of my briefcase--I have something to add to this week's edition.