At work I plan in a project management and process style. This should go before that, these tools are necessary to complete that task, assemble this list of things before starting task x. It makes so much more sense to plan – who wants to keep stopping and starting a project to get it right?
It would make sense then if I applied the same concepts to my personal life. Yes, it would. But that isn’t how it usually happens. I’m behind on making doctor and dentist appointments, there is a list of little things that need to be fixed in the house, and don’t ask me the last time that I went on a vacation beyond visiting relatives. All of these activities take some planning and so await that step.
I have actually taken a day off of work to do all this planning so that I will be prepared for the day off that I will need to take to complete the tasks themselves. I know many of you can relate. It is just too hard to squeeze the calls and so on that are the planning stage for all of this stuff that begs to be done. Evenings would be a good time, or maybe weekends. Sure. One out of fifteen things on my list are successfully planned during these hours.
It seems to me that I am often rewriting a to-do list onto a new sheet and transferring most of the items over just because the old one got too hard to read in the bottom of my purse or on the front of the fridge. I wish I could say because so many of the points on the list were crossed off. Ha. I have taken to dating the lists, just for self-torture purposes.
I’ve decided that I must use up all of the best planning brain cells at work and leave the lazy ones for personal stuff. I drive home at the end of a day, or wake up on a Saturday with the best intentions and sometimes manage to actually knock two things off the list on the same day. Only to have two new ones show up the next day. (Sigh.)
Can you relate? If you can’t because you are on top of all the aspects of your life, do share your secrets.
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Tagged: Life, Perspective, Philosophy, Planning, Process, Purpose, Thinking
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I tend to leave things on a to-do list until they become a priority. I do the things I like doing, but I just cleaned the final gutter this past weekend. It’s funny though because I am about to publish a post about being ready for winter, and I’ am working on one about the various ways I use notes for my future self. I’m going to go with “great minds think alike.”
I’ve taken the Franklin Covey course that talks about quadrants for levels of importance. It makes sense on one level, but doesn’t work for me. I have my own sort of triage – and then the tricks to get myself to do the things that I don’t like… Ready for winter – good for you. I just did my gutters after waiting for my son to get to it. (So glad I have a ranch.)