Most Saturdays, I make a list of all the things I need to do that day. This approach is a great one for focusing the effort and getting a lot of things knocked out. However, I seem to take it to far. I make a list that is more ambitious, too loaded for any human being short of Superman to accomplish before night.
And then I beat myself up about how many things didn’t get done.
No matter how much I accomplish, I can’t let myself be happy with that. I only focus on the remaining tasks. It drives my wife nuts. I have checked off a dozen things, only to moan about the 3 things left.
Yesterday, I did something different. I listed only the things that absolutely had to be done. The list was short, about six items long. And I accomplished every one of them before noon. Amazing! I felt wonderful. I played the rest of the day. I didn’t feel guilty about it, either. I was busy. I didn’t waste time, I just did other things. Were there still things left that need to be done someday? Yup. Lots of them. The key word is ‘someday’.
Since I am a perfectionist and unrelenting in my critique of myself, I think I need to either lighten up or shorten the focus. I have tried to lighten up on myself in the past. That is a hard thing to do. I think it may take years of therapy at this point. I may be better off just setting shorter and more realistic goals. I get more done that way.
Breaking things into small chunks has long been advocated as away to swallow the whale. The same goes for task lists. Don’t over crowd the day. Pick the small list and check them off quickly. Reload the list when it is done if desired, or just get a pat on the back and go play. It was nice to do that yesterday.
