To Do…..

Summertime is great, filled with long lazy days, no real set schedule, and the opportunity to spend a lot of time outside in the sun doing fun things! The downside to summer is that it’s super easy to fall behind on all the things that you would normally have under some level of control. This is what happened to me this summer. The lax schedule and minimal required schedule led me to feel so behind on so many things I’ve decided that I need to get myself organized. 

Now, usually, I’m not what the organized would deem as organized. Let me explain what I mean by this. I generally function in more of an organized chaos type of way. Example, when I’m cleaning the house, there isn’t usually a list, the tasks aren’t done in any specific order, it’s more of a what’s most efficient mindset. Like I always start with putting a load of laundry in, then because my laundry facilities are in my basement, I move forward from there. What needs to be brought upstairs, does the kitty litter need to be emptied and brought out to the garage? And so on. 

I decided that it’s time to try some new strategies, maybe ones that may help me keep a little more focused and orderly in my system. So because I don’t usually use anything like that, I am going to try out a few over the next while, and let you know what I liked and didn’t like about them and if they worked for me. 

First up is the “To Do List”

So, I started with the to-do list, because it seemed like the most obvious method. It’s an old school, pen and paper method, which I generally prefer to using electronic systems (I don’t know what it is about just actually writing something down, it gives me a sense of satisfaction). Seemed simple enough, make a list, do the things and cross them off….

Day one, I wrote the list…now I actually sat down with my morning coffee and wrote out everything I wanted to get done for the week, there had to be like 20 things, some simple tasks, some bigger ones. I will say, it made me feel motivated right off the hop. I knew what needed to get done, and then it was just a matter of doing it! 

It started off great, I got a few things done, and as I was going through the house, when I noticed something else needed doing, rather than stop what I was in the middle of and start that, I added it to the list. 

I’m sure you can see where this is going….the list kept growing and the longer it got, the less motivated I felt. It started to feel like I was never going to complete everything, and especially not in a week. It felt defeating. 

I decided that rather than try to get everything done, I’d focus on a couple of bigger things and go from there. Well, one of the bigger things I focused on was scraping the old peeling paint off of my garage door and repainting it. 

This ended up being a much bigger job than I thought (who knew that home repair isn’t a quick thing?), and it ended up taking way longer than expected. Which ultimately led to minimal of the “other” smaller tasks getting 100% neglected. 

I felt like I failed, it even let me to getting less done than I normally would have and I ended up skipping Thursday’s blog post altogether, feeling like I’d already failed this week, so I’ll try again next week.

As you can see, it appears that the to-do-list method may not be the best option for me. I don’t know why, but it led me to feeling more stressed, more defeated and more overwhelmed than it should have.

Maybe to-do lists work for others, I know that some seriously focused individuals love them and rely on them. Maybe the problem was that my list was just too long. I don’t know, but I do know that the list on its own, isn’t the way to go for me.  

Next up- Time-blocking. I heard some people that are described as neuro-divergent, or divergent thinkers, have success with this and I think I’d like to give it a go! Like the to-do-list, I’ll try it out for a week and see how it works for me, and I’ll let you know!

Let me know if to-do-lists work for you, or if you have any suggestions as to why mine didn’t work for me!

XO Sabrina