To-Do-Lists Love Them or Loathe Them? | Life Love and Hiccups: To-Do-Lists Love Them or Loathe Them?
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Tuesday 8 October 2013

To-Do-Lists Love Them or Loathe Them?

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Hello there. I feel like I haven't been around here or Facebook much the past two weeks and I'm excited to be back ... back from nowhere, but just back into it, if you know what I mean.

I hope you guys have survived the school holidays and weren't too sad sending the kids off to school today. I coped OK :) I don't know about you but these school holidays seemed to go on for ever, though if you ask the kids they will argue that one.

I am looking forward to getting back to my normal routine, getting my work done during school hours so I can enjoy the kids and the hubby when they get home from school and work. I have some projects I am dying to get stuck into, I am itching to spend some time on FB and Pinterest, and I am busting to catch up on all my favorite blogs that I haven't read for nearly the whole school holidays.

So routine it is and as I'm typing this I am where you will usually find me after school drop off - sitting on the back deck in the sunshine, drinking my coffee and doing my daily to do list and morning blog writing. I am such a creature of habit and so damn predictable ... but I like it like that. I am totally comfortable with predictable.

Which brings me to the point of my post today - Freaking To-Do-Lists!

I love them and I loathe in equal quantities.

I just don't feel like I have my head screwed on without my Daily To-Do-List and if I don't give myself those 15 minutes to sit down in the morning with a cuppa and plan my list, well my day pretty much ends in complete mayhem.

Without the list I forget the important stuff I need to do and end up wasting time on fluffy crap, things that may be fun to do but achieve .. well pretty much nothing really.

Without my list I forget what the hell it is I am supposed to be doing from one minute to the next. Seriously!

Case in point, last week when I was amid my school holiday throw routine to the curb experiment / flop, I didn't create my daily To-Do-Lists, and in one week alone I managed to stand up a friend for a coffee catch up, forgot to go to Craft Night, forgot nearly every night to defrost something for dinner, and I didn't return texts and messages to at least 10 people. But hey, I did manage to sort through the CD collection, reorganise the knick knacks in the house, re-sort my wardrobe according to item and colour and I made some really cool Halloween stuff.

See totally fluffy time wasting stuff and that is why I love my trusty old To-Do-Lists.

But then there is the part of me that loathes the flipping To-Do-List, just as much as I love it.

The part of me that stresses over the fact that I never EVER complete everything on that damn list. The part that desperately craves the elusive euphoric bliss that apparently comes with a clean slate, a list with a line crossed through EVERYTHING.

I remember a colleague once told me that every day she would start by writing her To-Do-List and then straight away she would cross at least 5 things off so that she knew she wasn't over committing and had plenty of room to breathe if things didn't go to plan. I think she was one smart cookie and I so need to adopt that technique too.

I am determined to experience for myself that clean slate euphoria, even if it is for one freaking day only. I'm going to try a new system and well look, I wasted at least a good hour on this plan, an hour that I shoulda coulda spent doing my tax - so it had better bloody work for me.

I'll have one big running To-Do-List from which I can add to and every morning I'll review that list and what's in my diary for the day and from there I can create my Daily To-Do-List which I will divide up into the following different sections.

Top Priorities (aka shit will hit the fan if these things aren't done)
Work & Blog Stuff (posts, reports, emails, phone calls, comments etc)
Kid Stuff (sports, play dates, school notes, homework assignments etc)
House Stuff (Washing, cleaning, cooking etc)
Projects and Fun Stuff (I'm going to actually schedule time to do the stuff I love)
Errands & Appointments (things I have to leave the house to do)
On The Run (Things I can do when I am out and about or waiting for an appointment e.g. phone calls etc)

Once I have created the list based on what I think I can achieve for the day, I'll cross at least 5 things off in honour off my old colleague and my sanity.

What have I got to lose? Apart from the 30 minutes that I just spent on writing a post about To-Do-Lists instead of actually working on anything on the To-Do-List.


Do you work with a To-Do-List? 
Do you love them or loathe them?
What's your method of creating and working through your list? 
Do YOU ever get to the bottom of the list with everything done?

Don't forget to enter the various GIVEAWAYS I have running at the moment! 
If you haven't yet entered - put it on your To-Do-List immediately! :)