Tuesday, March 29, 2011

To Do List

I have the world's dumbest brain.

You see, I recently started writing up a To Do list every day to keep myself on task. I'm lazy and easily distracted, but I'm also incapable of being happy in a messy house. It's a terrible condition to have.

The To Do list is like magic. Aside from the last two weeks--getting the kids' sleeping issues ironed out--my house has looked pretty good most of the time. Well, okay, it's still a bit crazy here, but it's happy crazyland, not utter chaos and mayhem and depression and filth crazyland.

Whenever I'm tidying up around the house, I am usually like a gnat. I want to fold and put away laundry, so I'll fold it up and take one of the stacks to the room it belongs in, and then I'll notice Grace's sheets need changed, so I'll do that, and then when I toss them in the laundry basket, I'll see that there are a few toys in the hallway, so I'll pick those up and toss them in the living room, only to notice that Emmy has strewn Cheerios all around her high chair, so I'll sweep those up, and when I put the broom away next to the freezer, I'll remember that the chicken needs to be put in bags and frozen, so I'll start that, but then Emmy will need to be changed, so I'll have to wash my hands, and as I'm doing that, I'll see that the soap dispenser needs filled...

You get the picture. I do not think I have ADD, since I made it through school with adequate grades and very little struggle, but I have a wildly undisciplined brain. It's like a very hyper toddler.

So. I started the To Do list. It lives on my fridge. I've tried the To Do list many times before, but I kept losing the stupid list. So this one does not move from the fridge. Ever.

I am an amazing list-maker. Most people have To Do lists that look like this:

-Clean kitchen.
-Wash clothes.
-Clean floors.

That's kind of a lot of work, if you think about it. But it's only three items. You get those done, you've done a lot of work, but it looks like all you did was lie around the house all day. There's nothing inspiring about crossing off those three items.

So I do two things. First, I break down every task into it the most minuscule components possible. Now, a rookie might do this:

-Wash dishes.
-Wipe counters.
-Do three loads of laundry.
-Put away three loads of laundry.
-Sweep floors.
-Mop floors.

It's a good start, but it could be so much better:

-Unload clean dishes.
-Put away clean dishes.
-Load dishwasher.
-Run dishwasher.
-Hand wash remaining dishes.
-Put away dishes.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Sweep kitchen floor.
-Sweep bathroom floor.
-Mop kitchen floor.
-Mop bathroom floor.

But here's the thing. It looks a little redundant. You need to break it up with other things. That brings me to my second tactic. Put things on your list that you've already done. It takes me like two hours to wake up in the morning. We're lucky the kids are still alive by 10:00. Do you think I've made a To Do list? Hah!

So, by the time I've gotten to the daily listmaking, I've already accomplished so much that it needs to be written down.

I also add in things that would happen even if I didn't make a list.

So, by the time I wake up at 10:00, I can already cross off a quarter of my list:

-Make breakfast.
-Change kids.
-Feed kids.
-Drink shake.
-Unload clean dishes.
-Put away clean dishes.
-Load dishwasher.
-Run dishwasher.
-Change kids.
-Hand wash remaining dishes.
-Put away dishes.
-Take vitamins.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Change kids.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Make lunch.
-Feed kids.
-Run a load of laundry.
-Fold a load of laundry.
-Put away a load of laundry.
-Change kids.
-Put kids down for naps.
-Get on elliptical.
-INTERNET FOREVER
-Get kids up.
-Change kids.
-Give kids snacks.
-Sweep kitchen floor.
-Sweep bathroom floor.
-Make dinner.
-Mop kitchen floor.
-Mop bathroom floor.
-Feed kids.
-Pick up toys.
-Change kids.
-Put kids to bed.
-Get on elliptical.
-Eat popcorn.
-Play video games.
-Watch Eureka with Jeremy.
-Take Unisom.

By the time I wake up midmorning, I've already finished a quarter of the things I'm supposed to do.

And do you know the sad part? IT TOTALLY WORKS. My idiot brain falls for it. Every single day. I make that list, I cross a bunch of stupid things off, and I'm already motivated. I accomplish almost my entire list before the kids even go down for their naps. It's amazing. I wish I'd discovered this in high school.

5 comments:

  1. You could also change "run a load of laundry" to "put a load of laundry in the washer" and "put a load of laundry in the dryer." More things to check off! :)

    I love it. I do somewhere in between, but I think I need to adopt your method. One of my favorite parts of doing homeschool is that I have a schedule and I get to check things off! Yay for checklists!

    I must put in a good word for ADD cleaning, though. I think that, for me, sometimes one is better and sometimes another. If there are chores that really urgently need to be done (i.e. I have no more clean underwear), then doing one task to completion works best. But if the house just generally needs stuff done, and there isn't any one thing that is particularly urgent, then sometimes going from one task to another adds variety and makes things interesting, while getting whatever task seems the most pressing at any given moment done.

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  2. You need to add one more thing to your to-do list. Read scripture for 1/2 hour, because : John 14:29-30.

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  3. Do you really get on the elliptical twice?

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  4. I do 20 minutes in the afternoon. That's when I'm at my most sluggish, and it gets me going again. And then I do a "real" workout (40 minutes, or weightlifting, with 20 easy-ish minutes on the elliptical before and after) in the evening.

    So it's not really two workouts because I don't consider the first one to really be a workout. More like a kick in the pants.

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  5. This explains the lists my mom used to leave for me and my brother to do when we were growing up. They were just about as detailed as yours and broke down every little thing she wanted us to do. Perhaps this is an understanding of How To Get Things Done that comes with motherhood?

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