Zombie to-do list: "[ ] Rot"
Jan. 2nd, 2008 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsA 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.
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.
