The Never-Ending TO DO List

Denise says:

Sunshine introduced me to the idea of a running “TO DO” list back in college, oh so many eons ago. (We are old.) Hers was in a little notebook, and she kept adding to it. I make mine on a piece of paper, usually errands for the weekend or occasionally what needs to be copied for school each day of the week. There really is great satisfaction in checking things off of the list. (I check off. Sunshine crosses out. Wonder what that means, checking vs. crossing?)

Then there are the lists that keep growing. What starts out as “grade papers, Post Office, Target” written in a neat, bulleted list becomes a scribbled, multi-colored mess.

Or last week, this:

It started as what needed to be done before going to Seattle for the PNWA conference. A few items got added to the back. Then I reiterated and added some details to my Alumni responsibilities on the yellow Post-It note. That also has some notes on the back, including the address and phone number for my hotel here. As the list got smaller, a few items kept escaping me so they were rewritten on the star Post-It on the very top (in red caps!).

Thankfully it’s done because I don’t have any Post-Its that are any smaller!

Sunshine says:

I do LOVE my running To-Do lists, even though they stress me out from time to time. There is great satisfaction in marking things off my list, but when things are constantly being added, it can become a bit discouraging at times. A new thing I find myself doing lately is creating new lists in addition to my primary running list. Don’t know why I’m doing it, but there wind up being duplicates when I compare the lists, and I just add the items to the original list anyway.

As far as the checking off items on the list vs. drawing a line (or several) through them, I use the drawing the line method because if an item is marked through, my eye is more quickly drawn to the remaining items I must complete. I’ve even started using an asterisk and highlighter to mark things I’d like to accomplish in a particular day. Not that I get it all done, but it makes me feel closer to getting it done. Crazy, I know!

Here’s a photo of my most current list, which I’ll be rewriting today. It’s a mess, but this is how they usually end up looking until I can’t stand it anymore and I rewrite them. I actually have two other smaller lists to add to this one, as well.