The Tyranny of The To Do List

I was at lunch with a friend when she lowered her voice. She glanced over her shoulder, leaned in closer and said, "Do you ever add something to your list that you've already done, just so you can cross it off?" "Of course, I do. Doesn't everybody?" I replied. At the end of an exhausting day, which is pretty much every day, when I can barely remember my name, how can I possibly remember what I did that morning? If it's not on my list and crossed off, it can't give me any satisfaction--the lift I get from being able to see that I did accomplish something that day. The strange thing about this To Do List is that while it keeps me on track, it can also be my worst enemy. Since I'm easily distracted, I have to have the important things written down, or I end up coping with an entire day of emergencies and forgetting the essentials. So the list starts with the two things that I have to do or the earth will stop turning. Then I add one extremely important thing that should get done, followed by two or three, or twenty-seven things that desperately need attention. I'm not finished yet. All the things that need to get done in the near future pop into my mind. I note them down to get them out of my mind, which is threatening to self-destruct. In no time at all, I'm the proud owner of a list I couldn't get through in a year, even if I were cloned. Twice. A well-adjusted person would realize this and be happy to see the essentials, plus a couple of lesser items crossed off. However, the truly list-dependent will look at the list, 80% untouched, and be depressed. It came to me that a better way might be to start the day with a blank page and write down what I do as I do it. A Have Done List. Then I wondered how I'd feel on the inevitable day when I got nothing done and was still looking at a blank page at bedtime. I guess that on those days it would be important to count the basics: got up, got dressed, didn't melt down when the drive-thru got my order wrong. It has possibilities.