{"id":345,"date":"2019-01-25T15:54:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/?p=345"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:54:37","slug":"the-tyranny-of-the-to-do-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/uncategorized\/the-tyranny-of-the-to-do-list\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tyranny of the To-Do List"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m someone who needs to-do lists. If I try to carry around everything I need to do in my brain alone I forget things (including deadlines), and I feel a tremendous pressure to not<\/em> forget things, which is a terrible one-two punch. I’m constantly searching my memory for things I know I’m not keeping track of, and when I do remember those things it’s usually somewhere inconvenient – the shower; in bed as I’m falling asleep; at the grocery store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to-do lists are a bear. If I keep an honest accounting of everything I should be doing, it’s more than I can possibly achieve in any single day, and if I accept that part I still feel overwhelmed when I finish work and there are inevitably still things on the list.<\/em> I fret about those things. I frequently feel like I didn’t accomplish enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I’ve started a new practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My notebook<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I still make to-do lists, but on the facing page of my notebook, I also make an ‘Achievements’ list. Every time I do something, I not only cross it off my to-do list, but I write it down on my achievements list. I also write down everything else I do between times. We do a lot of things at work (or in our working hours) that we don’t give ourselves credit for, like impromptu meetings, or chasing someone down to give them a book we think they’d find useful, or sending a dozen administrative emails (and then some).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for example, you’ll see on my to-do list I wrote “Respond to journals 1 2 3.” I have three sets of journals I need to read and comment on, and I didn’t get that crossed off my list yesterday. But you can also see, under achievements, that I kept a tally of how many I did<\/em> grade – 10 from one set, which is really satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I went only by my to-do list, and the things crossed off, I’d feel a sense of baffled wonder (“How did I work all day and only get this much done?”) as well as a sense of dissatisfaction, because there were two big things left undone. But when I look at my achievements list I get a sense of accomplishment, of hours well-spent, of satisfaction, and even a little bit of pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if you’re someone who finds that to-do lists are a little tyrannical, try keeping an achievements list, too. See if it lifts your spirits the way it does mine!
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m someone who needs to-do lists. If I try to carry around everything I need to do in my brain alone I forget things (including deadlines), and I feel a tremendous pressure to not forget things, which is a terrible one-two punch. I’m constantly searching my memory for things I know I’m not keeping track of, and when I do remember those things it’s usually somewhere inconvenient – the shower; in bed as I’m falling asleep; at the grocery store….<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}