Is Your To-Do List on Drugs?
May 12th, 2008 by Christine Kane
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?”
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Remember…
Admitting that your list has a problem is the first step towards Getting Things Done.
Wanna know the other eleven?
Stay tuned!

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