Lists: The Only Way I Ever (Sometimes) Get Stuff Done
You know, I forgot. I always forget.
How challenging multitasking is when the school year officially begins.
I mean, it’s hard always. Multi-tasking. Parenting. Life.
But this homeschooling gig is a FULL TIME JOB and I already have a FULL TIME JOB.
This week I’ll have FOUR teenagers (and I’ll surely post and whine more about that soon so you’ve been warned I guess). And next week I start teaching other people’s children again on Thursdays and is it okay if I say it again? I ALREADY HAVE A FULL TIME JOB.
It’s a lot of spinning plates and if you know me you know that I break the plates all the time. (I don’t return texts as quickly as I should and emails can lounge in my inbox for an embarrassingly long amount of time.)
But I do get stuff done.
And when I do – this is how …..
LISTS.
Very specific lists.
I mean, I have the regular lists. Just check off items that need to get done. I rely heavily on my planner. (The bullet journal is still my go to.) I don’t even pretend to trust my memory. If you don’t see me write it down, it’ll likely never happen.
But this season, once the everyone-is-home-always-all-the-time-together season began back in the spring, I knew I needed to upgrade even my regular list system.
So – this is what I do.
I make very VERY specific lists.
As in ….
TRH – 45 minutes
Vacuum my bedroom
Return emails for 30 minutes
Make that pesky phone call
Read a book for 20 minutes
Walk outside to check on the chickens
Write an article
Etc.
- A reward must always be built in.
- A moving task stacked between all the sedentary ones.
- Time limits.
- Never more than an hour on any one job – especially the boring ones.
Sometimes I’ll write in actual rewards. After a long series of tasks or some unusually unpleasant jobs, I might assign myself an episode of Community. (You guys – it’s SO funny!) or a cup of hot tea. (Yes, I write down – fix a cup of tea!)
I know this is not everyone’s style. Some people need to know they have three solid hours to dig into a project, but I just can’t ever get started if I’m staring down a three hour task. Sometimes I do trick myself and once I hit the hour mark, I might squeak out a little more time to fully finish a project, particularly a writing one.
I like basically pretending there’s a boss who is saying “DO THIS” and sometimes I have this perhaps bizarre conversation with myself about how I just have to finish the list – in order. (That’s critical.) I just have to command myself to follow my self-imposed rule. My kids have witnessed these out-loud conversations with myself. They haven’t called for back up for me. Yet.
This is not a system for everyone. I have a friend who thinks this is the actual worst idea. She thinks it sounds like torture. The stopping. The starting. The unfinishedness.
I’ve come to terms with Unfinished. Most of my work is always in stages of Unfinished. Because it’s the nature of my many jobs. Writing. Social Media. Articles. Posts. Parenting. Homeschool. House maintenance.
All of it.
NEVER ENDING.
It’s actually the breaking up of all of this into lists and bits and pieces that allows me to believe the illusion of completion.
My house will never be fully clean, but I can check Wash Porch Doors off a list and feel accomplished.
There’s always another article to write or a blog to post but when I can check off TR Makers Co article, I feel a mild sense of success.
My notebooks are mostly full of little series of lists. I even make lists for my Sundays. Which are days I should rest. And I do. I’m just listing out my rest options.
So there you have it.
The List System.
What do you do to get the jobs all accomplished at your house?
______________________________________________________________
