Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker! err, The Butcher, The Baker, The Chronic Listmaker!

When I was growing up my Mom would intermittently get the kids involved in the housework. To distribute the chores, (and since I was the child who got a little nutso about organizing and equity) she would let me make up a chore chart and assign siblings various rooms to clean. It was the beginning of a long life of Chronic List Making!

*Up and Out of Bed - Check
*Blog - Check
*Teach Seminary - Check
*Morning Run - Check (and so on...) In full disclosure I don't really "check"; I "scratch" things out! Done! Obliterate! Be Gone! I have been known to write pretty mundane things down, just to have the cheap thrill of scratching mundane things off! I realize that sounds a little pathetic!

This List Making skill/obsession can be a Good Thing and it can also be a Bad Thing! But, either way: I Need My Lists! Without a helpful "To Do" reference to turn to; I can become helpless and incompetent! And I am not kidding!

Some "plus" points of chronic listmaking: Lists keep me organized. Lists help me stay on task. Lists help me remember things. There is great satisfaction in marking things off my list.

The "minus" points of chronic listmaking: I become restricted by it: The rigidity! I tend to limit myself: not on the list, not gonna happen! ....... And the biggest problem for me: You lose the list, you lose your mind!