Lists & schedules & processes, oh my

[juliet]

I have a lot of lists. I have 2 ongoing todo lists, one for home, & one for work, & then I have a lot of other lists for things like books I want to read, things I've thought of, the Giant Packing List...

Occasionally though I start to wonder whether the lists are causing or reducing stress. On the one hand: Writing Things Down saves my poor overworked underpaid brain from having to actually remember anything at all, ever. On the other hand: the lists start to feel like they are having my life for me.

(Specifically, it is the to-do lists that are bothering me. The Giant Packing List has no minus points at all, other than perhaps encouraging my slight kitchen-sink packing tendencies.)

I feel the same way about scheduling, sometimes. The only way to fit in even a tiny fraction of all the Fun Things There Are To Do is via a diary. But then I look at the fullness of the diary & it starts to feel that it's not so much enabling the fun as flattening it into a diary-shaped thing. I experimented, a while back, with Not Scheduling. This had definite advantages, but is not entirely compatible with arranging things with other equally busy people. Since then I have vaguely attempted to Schedule Less, but then I spent about 2 months being on a bike every other minute and that in itself required Extensive Scheduling.

Anyway: the Lists. I think more than anything it's the feeling that they don't *stop*. Lists that you can't ever get to the end of are dispiriting. And by putting some things (even nice enjoyable things) on the List I am excluding other enjoyable things. And sometimes even the nice enjoyable things start to feel like chores once they have gone on the List.

I went for a bike ride today. This was on today's List. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't written it down; and I enjoyed it while I was out there, mostly... but I think maybe what I am disliking is that this seems to be my *only* means of motivation. Write it down, then you can do it, then you can tick it off. Completion rather than process. I think this may be a suboptimal tendency.

I can't get rid of the Lists. But maybe I can start thinking more about what I'm actually doing rather than when I'll have finished it.

ION: a note that I am going through a slightly anti-social, Not Organising Things patch right now. I think mostly I'm still just *tired* from May, which was full of 900k of cycling & exams & a nice but tiring holiday. (I slept most of the way through Saturday's rave, ffs!) I am hoping that Glastonbury will revitalise me a bit, but I do plan to take it monumentally easy.

Comments

[envoy.livejournal.com]

I have to have the lists so that I *remember* to do the good things for myself and *not* just let the quick-sugar low-importance tasks take over.

[juliet]

Hm, that's actually an interesting way to think about it, thanks!

suggestions

[smorgasbord.livejournal.com]

Good Evening, I added your LJ to my collection after your excellent post about safe cycling in London. Now I am going to try and offer advice to you a complete stranger so of course everything I say here could be completely wrong.

To do lists are great tools and there are lots of ways of getting the most out of them--see sites like 43folders.com.... Perhaps the problem is not the lists themselves but the fact that you are trying to squeeze to much in.

Would stepping back and deciding what you really want out of life help? Then you could drop some activities and focus one the ones that are important to your goals.

Re: suggestions

[juliet]

Oh, I'm always trying to squeeze too much in, I know that :-)

I do have a decent idea of what's more important, & prioritise that; it's just that there's lots of *other* stuff that would be nice to do, as well...

(& I do have a fair amount of not-really-negotiable commitments: work, college, family/friends, life-maintenance chores, etc etc).

Glad you like the cycling post, btw!

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Lists that you can't ever get to the end of are dispiriting.

I keep master lists of all work / life stuff in my work notepads. Whenever the list exceeds 88 items, I start a new list and transfer over the unchecked items. While it can be terrifying to see the list after a big action-item meeting or burst of DIY enthusiasm, it's helpful to me to see how much I have checked off in the last n weeks.

This is really sad - if I'm in dire need of bootstrapped motivation, I'll dig up old lists and check off items that were finished months or years ago.

[juliet]

I prefer electronic versions - the work one has a "done" bit as well as the to-do bit so that is cheering, yes. Maybe I should be more aware of that for the not-work stuff, which is in a different sort of list which doesn't show done things.

I suspect the other problem is that I *care* less about the work stuff that's not been done, so I am able to face the list with equanimity :-/

Occasionally I put things I've already done on lists, just so's I can cross them off. Actually, I saw a version of this (having a "done" list as well as a to-do list, esp if you tend to do a lot of quick-fix stuff which never makes it onto the to-do list) suggested as a good motivational tool the other day, so maybe it's not quite that sad ;-)

[babysimon]

Lists that you can't ever get to the end of are dispiriting.

...but but but... that's all lists, isn't it? I mean, there are an infinite number of Fun Things To Do, and only so much time. So maybe the solution is in how we name things.

A "To Do" list should only have the things that absolutely, positively have to be done - Pay Rent, Wash, Eat Food, Ensure Brakes Work, that sort of thing. Hopefully that list should be short and very manageable, because there's not much that really has to be done.

Then the other list could be titled "It might be nice if one day I...". That might help you to think of it more as a menu of fun stuff you can have if you want. Or not. And the list can get as long as you want it to, because it's not the sort of list that is meant to be completed.

(Well, it would work for me, anyway...)

[dogrando.livejournal.com]

I think this is very sensible. Or, you could maybe have a "chores" list and a "fun" list (or categories in the list or whatever your device makes it easier to do). That might make it easier to think "good for me, I have just finished X" when you do a chore, and "oh, good, I get to do Y" later when you look at the fun. Obv. doesn't make much difference in practice, but might help change the way you look at the things.

What I do, incidentally, is I have chores on a todo list and fun in my calendar. That way I cross off chores when they're done, and I see when fun is happening but never cross it off. The problem with this, of course, is that the chores are not anchored in time so it's possible for them to slip (not that you will have observed that at all, my dear...).

[juliet]

I think maybe I worry that if the interesting things are left as "nice to possibly do", they won't happen just because of inertia. (I love the internet dearly, but by god it makes it easy to spend a very large chunk of time doing very little at all, & then you feel unsettled & dissatisfied later. And it always starts with "I'll just check...".)

I read a thing, recently, about mindfulness & asking yourself what you *actually* want to do with any given bit of time. This is maybe a thing that goes better with the "possible interesting things" list.

Thinking of lists as explicitly not meant to be completed is probably a helpful thing, as well :-)

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

I often make lists during the day of things I need or want to do when I get home, because otherwise I can never remember. But I do this on little post-its which easily get lost or screwed up, so they don't stick around to menace me if I don't complete the list. I make new lists each day - if there's something I haven't done and it's important enough to do, I'll write it down again.

I do packing lists too, which have all sorts of advantages. But yes, reusing them does lead to the possibility of ever-increasing lists where I end up taking all sorts of stuff for even an overnight trip, even if I probably don't need it, because it's on the list.

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

I get where you're coming from...my nature and my brain dictate a lot of my lists but the 'never ending' isn't as dispiriting to me as the 'the end', if that makes sense. I think in the end, it helps you Do Things and Finish Important Tasks, and perhaps as has been suggested, focus on adding things things that you really need to do, and that you really want, rather than just for the sake of it, if that makes sense?

My 101 list has been stressing me as I realise I've got just over a year and I'm not even halfway through!

[juliet]

Ah, I'm probably just having a Goth couple of days... Also I do hate the fact that there is *no way* I am ever going to be able to do all of the interesting things that I want to do :-/

101 list: is there anything Helpful that yr charming friends (that would be us, then, in case of doubt ;-) ) can help with?

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have been getting some help re: 101 :) I'm just being silly. I currently have my Glasto Panic brewing, but that's on the back burner as I'm too busy focussing on Work Panic!