Whenever I find myself at a transition point, usually in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall, I often have a lot of time on my hands and a long mental list of things to accomplish. The problem is that items on my mental list come and go without always being accomplished. Knowing this, the struggle to keep them on the mental list before they escape can produce the illusion that I have much more to do than I really do. Enter the paper list...my new best friend. I'm carrying around my new best friend in my pocket right now. According to Herb (my current list's name) I still have to:
1. Drink the rest of my latte (Herb is a stickler for details)
2. Get an idea of the cost of plane tickets to Chile
3. Run
4. Get the slow leak in my tire fixed
The thing about lists, is that if I write something down a) I don't have to worry about remembering it, and b) I usually accomplish the tasks because I wrote them down, thus making them seem more important.
All of my lists, of which there have been many, are inspired by the be all end all of lists that my sister and I concocted one summer. We were both home for the summer and had many things we wanted to do together that we had talked about doing for several years but had not accomplished. We titled the list "The Summer of George" after a Seinfeld episode in which George was going to do all the things he always wanted to do. The list took form on a giant poster board, keenly decorated by my younger sibling. I think the size really helped drive home the urgency of crossing off its items. Needless to say, we had a great summer thanks to the giant list hung on the wall.
A form of list that I have grown fond of over the years is the pro and con list. I have found it invaluable in making decisions. As an ode to the pro and con list...
Pros of being at home in RC: leftovers, Onyx the dog, Fox the cat, no rent, sweet AV system
Cons of being at home in RC: too much time to reflect on being at home, the subtle hints about good life decisions, Miller Genuine Draft Lite in the fridge
My latte is almost gone. Herbs usefulness is waning...
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3 comments:
hahaha. Yes the list. I think the items on my list, which actually is right out on my desk now, are buying small travel size shampoo and conditioner bottles, going to Chile, studying for ecology, and buying a box cake mix. The beauty of them is that you can put anything on them and it so dang satisfying to accompish -and the best part is by far crossing the item off. Though I have to say, the poster board list was a bit extreme. We did some dank things though that summer.
Yeah, dank for sure.
I hope the memorandum flip book is treating you well. If you look closely inside it, you will no doubt find a few lists of my own.
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