Friday 3 September 2010

Lists

I have, from time to time, become almost addicted to lists, usually lists of jobs to be done. Before leaving the office at the end of the afternoon I would very often draw up a list of the things I had to do - or wanted to do - the following day. There was always a frisson of pleasure as I crossed of more and more of the jobs, especially those that I really didn't want to do but that had to be done. The problem was that there always seemed to be one job left undone at the end of the day. It got carried forward onto the new list, but once again it was generally back at the bottom of the list, which I tried to produce in approximate order of priority.

Even now that I am retired, I sometimes find it helpful to jot down things that have to be done just as a reminder. I wish I could say the difference is that nowadays I always cross off each one of those jobs, but I still find one left over at the end of the day more often than not. One list I never draw up but should, is the list of things to be done before we leave for France. There always seem to be 101 of them and I think I usually remember all of them, but more than once I have either forgotten something or simply run out of time. This time there are at least two extra jobs that I simply must do and another couple that I should do (but won't). It didn't help that the traffic was horrendous on both the way to and the way back from the kennels where Fern will be spending her week. That has rather put me behind, so I had better get cracking on all those other things.

Tara for now.

1 comment:

#1Nana said...

I too love lists...and never seem to accomplish everything. I think that the act of writing it down helps me get my priorities set in my mind and I never need to look at the list again. Well, it's either that or one more strategy for delaying what I don't want to do!

Have a great trip.