What are you doing? - Twitter

It’s Monday. You’ve got stuff to do.

Better make your To-Do list.

You make To-Do Lists, don’t you? Do they work for you? Do they give you a sense of accomplishment?

No?

Well, you’re not alone.

Many people’s To-Do lists don’t help them at all. In fact, many people tell themselves that they’re just not capable of Getting Things Done.

Here’s my theory:

It’s not the people.

It’s the list!

Face it. Some lists just go bad. It starts with one hit, and just gets totally outta hand after that. An out of control To-Do list is just gonna bring you down.

Here are the three most common symptoms of To-Do lists under the influence…

1 - This is your To-Do list. This is your To-Do list on speed.

Some To-Do lists are all hopped up on Benzedrine. These are the ones that burn, burn, burn - desirous of everything at the same time.

Hey. Kerouac wrote On the Road in 20 days. So, you can sure get your stuff done in one, right?

Need more than one page for your To-Do’s? Got a color code system you don’t get anymore? Or do you just know you’re never getting all this crap done?

Yea?

Well, then your list is poppin’ Bennies.

And here’s what this might look like:

To-Do List for Today

- Pick up dry cleaning
- Make doctor’s appointment
- Do laundry
- Write 75 thank you notes
- Call Aunt Jean re vacation
- Book vacation
- Get kitty litter
- Write project outline
- Plant bulbs
- Call plumber
- Send off 3 proposals
- Interview VA’s
- Take dog to groomer
- Clean house
- Buy birdseed
- Do yoga
- Answer emails
- Get groceries
- Get manicure
- Send out invitations
- Meditate
- Order books from amazon
- Learn google analytics
- Meet with realtor
- Call mom
- Book flight to Anaheim
- Listen to podcasts
- Mow the lawn
- Get oil changed
- Vote!
- Research outsourcing
- Write eBook
- Rotate tires
- Upload photos to Flickr

In fact, you don’t even have time to read this post. You gotta go gotta go gotta go and never stop going till you get there.

“Where we going, man?”

“I don’t know but we gotta go!”

2 - The Cheech and Chong To-Do list

Maybe your list isn’t into all that rapid fire motion, man. It doesn’t get it, man. Why not relax a little? Your list is gonna get there. Someday. It’s just a list, man.

There’s some things, yea. Priorities? Huh? No, man. Just things.

What things?

Well, like, uh…

Blog! I gotta figure out the blog thing! Yea, I hear some people are gettin’ rich on that sh**. So, that’s on there.

And I guess I gotta go through that in-box at some point. That’d be good to do.

Yea.

Um.

Bills! Gotta pay the bills. Here’s the list…

- In-box
- Blog
- Bills
- Store
- Job

If your To-Do list has a thing for cheeba, most likely there’s not a lot of attention to detail, or how long something could take, or why it matters, or what comes first, or who even cares. It’s all just there. Sitting there. Waiting to be done. Getting the munchies. Dude.

3 - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid To-Do List

This is the list where nothing gets crossed out.

After all, why would you want to put a line through anything and ruin it like that? It’s all beautiful. Cross marks through words? That’s just, well, not beautiful. Big things are beautiful. Dreams are beautiful. Ideas are beautiful.

Why break it all down into small steps? I mean, the word “break” is just so not about peace and love! You can’t worry about how to proceed. You just gotta have a vision. Hey… You’re either on the bus…or off the bus.

This to-do list looks like this:

- Sell house
- Move to remote island
- Write novel

Great ideas. Big plans. Beautiful dreams. This is the list that eventually gets you to singing…” Woh-oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?”

——————————

Remember…

Admitting that your list has a problem is the first step towards Getting Things Done.

Wanna know the other eleven?

Stay tuned!

This is Simon’s Cat, Episode 2. (Created by English animator, Simon Tofield.) The first episode is here. Have a happy Monday!

You will need:

1 - One single wooden bead (not too small)

2 - One Bathtub

3 - One Curious Cat

Instructions:

1 - Take the wooden bead into your bathroom.

2 - Call your cat.

3 - Roll the wooden bead around in the bathtub.

4 - Allow your cat to jump into the tub.

5 - Observe.

Cautions:

- Use a wooden bead! I won’t mention any names, but a certain cat in my life was playing in the tub with a marble. In a moment of unbridled glee, the marble was thrust into the air. It landed on the aforementioned cat’s head with a loud “CLONK!” sound. He paused for a moment looking rather dizzy. Since then, he has requested that only wooden beads be used for this game. Now when they hit him on the head, there’s only a small “plock!” sound - and he doesn’t have to pause very long to recover. (He has asked me to mention that no permanent damage was done in what we both call The Marble Incident.)

- Make sure the bead is big enough so that the cat can’t swallow it. (It should be a little bit bigger than a marble.)

- If you have guests over for dinner, be sure to remove the bead from the tub. Otherwise your dinner will be interrupted by an odd rolling sound coming from the bathroom. You will then have to explain to your guests that yes, you are that mentally ill, and you actually spend valuable time coming up with these kinds of activities for your cat.

My friend Elaine sent this to me. It’s just too perfect not to share. It was created by an English animator named Simon Tofield.

1 - I drove nine hours from Lafayette, Indiana to Asheville yesterday. Straight through. By the time I got home, my body was vibrating. My dog made such a scene on my front porch, I thought the neighbors would accuse me of abusing her. I always have to sit with her until she calms down and sighs that big final trembly dog sigh that says, “Oh, I’m just SO glad you aren’t gone forever.”

2 - Atticus, my cat, is very glad to have me home, too. Today, he shows this by standing at the front door until I let him out. Then he walks around to the back of the house, and stands at the back door until I let him in again. Then he stands at the front door until I let him out again. He seems to be thinking, “It’s good that these doors are repaired. This past week they didn’t work at all.”

3 - There was a pop song in the 70’s that went “Do you wanna make love or do you just wanna fool around?” That’s what I woke up with in my head. I’m hearing it over and over, even as I write this.

4 - Do you ever do this — do you ever have a long list of important things to do, and you do something completely stupid instead? I have a bunch of things I need to do now that I’m home. And what’s the first thing I do? I vacuum the dead bug carcasses that fell into the window ledge over the summer. As I’m vacuuming, I keep thinking to myself, “What am I DOING?” This is normal behavior for me when I return from a tour.

5 - Have you ever left a banana in your car for a day or two, and then opened your car and thought, “Oh crap. Where’s that damn banana?”

6 - Traveling (as in “Thanks for traveling!”) seems like it should have two L’s. And buses (as in “Parking for trucks and buses”) seems like it should have two S’s. These are the kinds of things I think about as I drive.

7 - Thanks to everyone who came to the shows over this past week! I met lots of my blog readers - which was great fun! I spent so much time driving this week that I didn’t have time to write blogs - but I’ll post again tomorrow…