Does anyone know where I can get a round tuit?
The handle of my dishwasher is cracked. The refrigerator ice maker isn’t working.
If I could just get a round tuit.
The bathroom ceiling vent is full of dust. The pictures need to be hung.
If I could just get a round tuit.
That mail-in rebate needs to be sent.
If I could just get a . . . .
Let’s face it. Extra time is hard to come by and, while waiting to find it, so many little things pile up. How many times have you said:
I’ll do it as soon I as can get around to it.
Well, the little things can build up so fast that, before you know it, the pile is so high that it’s overwhelming. That’s when the “to do” pile becomes the “why bother” pile.
And I’ll let you in on a little secret. There’s no such thing as a “round tuit”.
So I will give you some advice from my personal experience. Avoid the “why bother” pile and try to get just one thing done. Just one.
My story
I used to make a list every Saturday morning over my first coffee of the day. It was my “to do” list for the weekend. The problem was that I would still be adding to the list well into my second coffee of the day. It was always an ambitious list and it felt great to stroke things off my list as they got accomplished. (because I’m a task oriented person)
The problem was that I would get to Sunday night and only half or less of the things on my “to do” list actually got done. I would get so bummed out because I could never see what I got done; all I could see were the items that didn’t get crossed off.
It became a real problem. I kept making my lists longer and drove myself crazy trying to “beat the list”. Weekends are supposed to be for down time; for family and friends; for fun! But mine became a race with the “to do” list. And I would never win.
I had such high hopes every Saturday morning but, looking at it now, the list was just setting me up to fail. In reality though, it wasn’t the list, it was me. I was setting myself up to fail.
I don’t know when I finally realised this but, when I did, I knew I had to stop. It took a lot of work but I finally stopped giving that list so much power. It’s okay to have a list but stop thinking that you will ever get it all done because, like laundry, there will always be more things to add.
I also realised that no one else cares about my “to do” list and that I am the only one keeping score. Life is too short. Having friends over for coffee is more important than cleaning my bathroom vent. My friends aren’t judging me for the cleanliness of my bathroom vent.
So I stopped making weekend “to do” lists and now I try to get just one thing done every weekend. Just one. I have the satisfaction of accomplishing something and if I happen to get a second thing done, it’s a bonus!
This weekend, we got my boyfriends new cell phone activated. He’s had it for about 4 months now and it’s been in the top 10 of the “to do” list the whole time. It felt so good to get that done today.
We will call that a “win”.
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