Lost without my lists

I have always been somebody who has written lists of 'things-to-do'. Whether in my daily diary or on a scrap piece of paper, I have always had some form of list lurking about. But when this year began, my lists became more goal orientated and were bigger than what I could do in a week. So I started to put them aside and just get on with the things I felt needed to be done.

About 2 months ago, I found myself getting incredibly frustrated with myself because at the end of a full day of busyness, I couldn't remember what I had done and I had not achieved all that I had hoped to on that day. I felt a bit like a turkey running around in circles, not achieving much. I think this really baffled my husband because we had both been anticipating a time when I could do all the things that I wanted to and needed to in a day, and it had arrived. But I was still struggling to fit in everything.

The truth be told, I was wasting a lot of time on Youtube and Google doing 'research' for my business. We all know how this can start with good intentions, but then one thing leads to another and before you know it, you are watching a video on 'how to not flex your calf muscles' all the time and you realise that this has absolutely NO relation to what you set out to do.

While on my way so school one day, I was listening to the radio, (this is quite a new thing for me), SAFM, I think it was. There was a man talking about people who procrastinate. He spoke about how these people should write lists and cross off things as they go along, possibly putting the most important things lower on the list. This is because, us procrastinators actually want to get the last things done on the list first. Well, I'm not too sure about the order of how a person should put things on their lists, I don't think it really makes a difference for me, but it got me thinking about how I had not been doing this in a while and thought that perhaps that was why I was not achieving all I had hoped.

So I started keeping lists again, but I still found them a little too broad. I then decided to make a list every morning of the things that I felt I could fit into that day. Then as I have achieved whatever is on the list, I make a great big line through it.  This has been so rewarding, that I feel quite lost on days I choose not to write the list. So then I get started on my list and before you know it, I have done so many things. The strangest thing, is that sometimes the things on the list are what I would be doing anyway, like 'put on a load of washing, hang washing, fold washing' or 'teach so-and-so' or 'cook supper'. But I feel that because it is written down, I have done it and then crossed it off, I have achieved something.