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Lists & schedules & processes, oh my
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.
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.
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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...).