Zombie to-do list: "[ ] Rot"

[elfs]

A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless because the post was friends-locked) echoed a very common sentiment in a New Year's Resolution: "I resolve to end this year with a shorter to-do list than when I entered it." It's a noble sentiment-- "I shall get things done!"-- but it's also a misguided sentiment that, I believe, leads to ennui and spiritual malaise.

I mean, imagine what this resolution meant, if you kept it year after year: eventually you'd reach an empty to-do list. I can't imagine that: I can't imagine having nothing to do. In fact, I'll go one step further:

Only the dead have nothing to do.

I would love to get everything done on my current to-do list. But that doesn't mean that there won't be more to do. Gods know I'll find more things in which to be a dilettante.

And if your to-do list is getting shorter, review your incompletion trigger list and make sure you haven't missed anything.

I resolve that every item on my current to-do list will be Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Realistic, and Time-constrained (SMART). And then I resolve to schedule each one, making sure that I know how much time it will take to finish each, and then schedule accordingly. By the end of the year, as many of those as I can fit in a year will be done.

I also resolve to find a random number of things I would enjoy doing such that, by the end of the year, my to-do list will be longer. And more fun.

Comments

[rarkrarkrark.livejournal.com]

yeah, but things will come and add to your todo list. Believe me, we've got the CT place under contract and suddenly my list is populated with "learn zoning codes for MA" "figure out what the fastest, most cost efficient housing I can build without having to beat the zoning board over the head is" "figure out how we're going to finance this behemoth" "buy the land" "build the house" etc :P I'm not complaining but it is rather overwhelming.

Perhaps a full todo list churn is more likely?

Somewhere along the line I've come to the conclusion that adulthood is the state of never seeing the bottom of your todo list (much less actually getting there), so I've resolved to just keep eating several bites of elephant a day and try not to let the rest get to me. It is way easier said than done.

[rarkrarkrark.livejournal.com]

hey, that one-off sounds familiar. Admittedly, linens aren't on the list (and I don't have an ex-husband) but my palm has an entire category of things that needs to happen with. The tools, the books, and clothes come to mind, but I know there's at least ten things in that category :)

But even with the one-offs, once I get them done, there will be a whole new set of one-offs to populate the list. But at least they'll be different :P

Stacked todos are such an issue around here that I've seriously considered writing an entirely new todo list manager because I've never met one that handled stacked todos (or "gating issues" as we call them around here ;) ) in a way I liked and it's not for lack of auditions. But I can't write such software minimally until I've got my big computer up. This one has 32 MB of RAM and a 3 gig hard drive. Developing on it seems painful. Heck, web browsing on it can be painful. I've got a perfectly good desktop, I think, i just need to put it together, put an OS on it, that sort of thing. Speaking of gating issues...

I do know the stuck and sick of it feeling. It only took a year and a half to get a property emptied, cleaned and on the market that we could have never lived in anyway. Well, not for another twenty five years. I soooooo want to be in my nice house, on a nice plot of land, preferably with a bunc h of mooing mini-cattle and clucking chickens as of, oh, yesterday would be good :) Gods grant me patience! Right now! (and while I'm wishing, how about that book go write itself and the silicone molds make themselves, too)

I'm stealing your line about not overachieving, just setting very large goals. :)

[rarkrarkrark.livejournal.com]

BTW, getting living room furniture may not be as fun as $Insert_Funnest_Activity_Ever_Here, but I humbly suggest that if you're not looking forward to it (the choosing and the having, if not the actual moving of it) then quite possibly you've overworked yourself to the point of burnout. If one insists on beating their head against their todo list with no breaks for rest and fun, one's productivity goes down along with one's energy, health and other important things. Believe me, I know this one from repeated personal experience.

Or, to haul out another business world productivity cliche, take the time to sharpen your saw. :)

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Heh, wanna trade?

Seriously though, I remember your to-do list being quite huge even when you weren't working. Overacheive much? ;p I find the sheer amount of to-do crossing off you do to be quite daunting.

You're my hero.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that it's perfectly OK to cross things off you to-do list without actually doing them. My list is quite fluid and extremely full. I don't regret things I don't do (well, there may be one exception). Life is too interesting and, like you say, there's lots to do. So you don't have to do it all. It's OK to not do something.

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

I think a better way to resolve to get things done from your to-do list is to resolve that, next year, the average 'age' of the things on your to-do list will be less than they are now.