Creating a MASTER “To Do” List

I’ve been going through a creative slump. It seems like everyone around me is doing “the things,” but me. Is this a case of FOMO (fear of missing out)? Am I procrastinating…yet again? Or perhaps it’s not that I’m feeling uncreative and unproductive. Perhaps I’m simply overwhelmed.

This week I sat down with a notebook and started writing down the projects I wanted to finish, the books that were sitting unread on my nightstand, the “things” I wanted to try or finish. I wrote out PAGES of tasks. Long term and short term goals. Big things like getting a newer vehicle and little things like organizing my top desk drawer. My list is FAR from complete, but it’s a start. In reality, my master to do list will NEVER be complete, not as long as I’m still breathing. However, it’s a starting point. It’s a list I can add to. It’s a list I can chip away at.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. —Bill Gates

This week:

• I defrosted my freezer.
• I recycled a pair of my husband’s jeans into a cross back apron. (a project that’s been sitting on my sewing pile for well over a year.)
• I started and FINISHED a craft kit that I bought back in May of last year.
• I read an ARC copy of Amy Stewart’s new book: Kopp Sisters on the March (Kopp Sisters #5).
• I read Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl.

That’s SIX things checked off that I wanted to do.

I spent ZERO dollars working on this list.

Would I have worked on any of these things if I HADN’T taken charge and wrote them down on a MASTER to do list? Probably not. (Let’s be honest. it can take a LOT to motivate me! LOL) Did any of these tasks take a long time to do? Not really. Was anything especially difficult to accomplish? The most difficult thing I did this week was sewing the apron, a project that took ONE evening and ONE morning. Mind you, I put this off for a long time! (It’s NOT perfect and I’m okay with that.)

This week made me see that I waste a lot of time wishing and hoping instead of DOING. I tend to build tasks up and make them more difficult in my mind than they are in reality. I also tend to avoid tasks when I think I don’t have enough time to do them the “right way.” Perfectionism is my kryptonite!

So what have you been putting off? What task is begging for your attention?

Leave your comments below!

Take care!

xo Juli