How To Be A List Maker

I am a list maker. I make lists for everything, and not just the groceries.

I have a Major Projects List; A Minor Projects List; A Daily To-Do List; A Things I Want To Do Before I Die List and there was even a Things I Want To Do Before I Get Married List.

Lists. They are my downfall because typically I am making my T0-Do Lists posthumously. Except I'm not dead.

For years I was a Covey Day Planner Worshiper. I mean YEARS people. Like before the dawning of cellphones-- YEARS-- I was scribbling away in my day planner.  I even went to classes. WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. So I could learn how to use my day planner more "efficiently".

See? Nerdy List Maker from the get-go. 

However, I was never very good at making my lists first thing in the morning.  I always made them at night, and wrote down everything I had done that day-- and then crossed it off. Which is sort of NOT the point of a day planner, but hey, I was trying.

Later, after I got married (and tossed my Things To Do Before I Get Married List in the trash) I started doing my posthumous  list making during Sunday School.  Admittedly, I never would have engaged in such sinful behavior if DeNae were my Sunday School teacher. Pinky Swear. I wouldn't.

But, she wasn't. So I do did.

I lovingly made those  posthumous-- sans the death-- lists every single week during Sunday School.

The first time I did this, Jefe was perplexed. "You know you're writing all of the stuff you have to do down on last weeks dates, right?"  I looked at him, completely shocked that he didn't make lists like I did. "Umm, No. This is right. This is all the stuff I did LAST WEEK."

He was dumbfounded.

"Why do you make lists AFTER the fact? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of a TO DO LIST? As in Present Tense?" My response was even more earth shattering: "No. I make my posthumous lists because it makes me feel good about myself to see all the stuff I've already done." 

Right there is where the continual Eye-Rolling started. Him and me and my List Making. 


But you know what? It's true. 

Being able to cross stuff off my lists makes me feel all sorts of sparkly.

 I make my To Do lists every single morning AFTER I have already done a bunch of stuff.  I write everything down, including what I've already done and then immediately cross it off.  Makes me feel all productive and responsible doing it that way.

See how effiecent I look there on my list? Most of that I had done BEFORE I made my handy-dandy list.

I'll make sure my list is out when Jefe comes home from work so that he can see how busy I have been.

(And I always make sure to fill the sink with pinesol and let it sit there all day. Jefe LOVES that. Sparkly Puffy Heart LOVES IT. And it makes my house smell like I've been cleaning all the live long day)

(He actually hates that I put pinesol in the sink, forgetting about it and then leaving it there all day. He'll use a fork to pull the plug out cause he thinks its so nasty to stick your hand in cold pinesol water.)

(Whatever. The house smells clean.)

Some days I'll write my list at the end of the day, and the only thing I can think of to put on the list to then cross off is get dressed-- but hey! At least I did something.

And we all know that something is better than nothing.

Even if we have to trick ourselves into believing that we actually did something. That's better than doing nothing.  See how handy a posthumous list can be?  (Minus the death part.)