TO DO TODAY: WRITE BLOG POST

According to a personality/character trait test of which I cannot recall the name, I'm an Achiever. One of the qualities of this trait is the affinity for to-do lists. This description is totally accurate.

Most people keep to-do lists to help them avoid forgetting something they need to do. I do that, but I also use them for another reason. I've been making to-do lists since I was in high school and needed to convince myself I actually did have things going on in my life. (The school-mandated planner process wasn't around yet.)

It's true, I enjoy crossing items off my long to-do lists and feel a little frustrated when I have to transfer things I didn't get around to doing to future days or weeks. But I also need them to remind me that I do, in fact, have goals and things I'm working to complete. If I don't, and I'm faced with a blank to-do list, I end up staring at the wall, unable to think of a single thing I need to do. And then, yes, I end up doing NOTHING.

A lot of my projects are big, so I need to break them down into smaller step-by-step pieces. This is not a new concept. I then take it a step further by writing down all of these small pieces, whittled down as tiny as I can get them, on my to-do list on my calendar. I do this because if I start to think about the whole project and all of the options available to me, I get overwhelmed. And then I get stuck.

When I get stuck, I get nothing done and then when something comes up I HAVE to get done, I erroneously think I have much less time than I actually do. Because if I focus and work and move forward on my projects, I actually get a hell of a lot accomplished. The trick is in having the right amount of items on my to-do list. Too many that I can't complete and I feel overwhelmed about that, which makes me anxious. Too few that I have everything crossed out by Wednesday and I end up staring at that wall wasting time.

When you work for yourself, sometimes you're the worst employee you could imagine having. So you need to trick yourself. To-do lists help me do that.

May your to-do lists be full and crossed-out!
-The Wordsy Woman