As work gets busier, social events and obligations pile up, and I seem to have generally less time for everything – including sleep – I’ve decided that I need to take a page off of my friends Jen & Luke‘s fridge and abandon my “to do” list for a “could do” list.
You know, all the things I could do if I had the time and inclination.
This tactic immediately frees me of the heavy oppression of the things I am absolutely “to do” and instead reminds me of all the things I would do if I weren’t using my precious little free time to play at the beach with the dog, or rollerblade along the seawall, or eat gelato in my underwear while catching up on the TiVo.
And what’s on this riveting list? Glad you asked…
What I could do: Buy a strapless swimsuit to manage the tan lines on my shoulders, neck, chest & back.
What I’ll probably do instead: Keep wearing the same ol’ swimsuit, and try to fake’n’bake to even things out at some point.
What I could do: Upgrade WordPress from version 1.5 to try and combat some of the comment spam I’m getting.
What I’ll probably do instead: Just stop reviewing the comments that get filtered, and start deleting them all in batches.
What I could do: Finish packing my apartment so I can clean it and move everything easily at the end of the month.
What I’ll probably do instead: Show up in a frenzy, throw away 80% of my belongings, and throw the rest haphazardly in the back of my car.
What I could do: Get my filthy car detailed.
What I’ll probably do instead: Wait until it’s unbearable, or convince someone that I really need a car detailing for my birthday (July 27th if anyone’s counting), at which point it’ll probably cost a mint to have someone else scrape the layers of filth off the interior and exterior, and hopefully evict the ‘mystery smell.
What I could do: Clean the bathrooms at home
What I’ll probably do instead: Better spend my energy convincing the boy that we need a maid sooner rather than later (not a hard sell – we’ve talked about it already, it’s just a matter of finding one – any recommendations?).
What I could do: Stop blogging and get to work…
What I’ll probably do instead: Ok, maybe that one does sound like a good idea.
Yeah, sorry about that smell in the car. I’ll make it up to you somehow.
What is it with the term ‘detailing’? I’ve never fully understood the difference between getting your car ‘washed’ and ‘detailed’. I’ve never had the latter done–what do you get?
haha nice! i gave luke a hard time about that list at first, but it does seem to be working, and without the stress associated with a to-do list.
Chris: ew.
Darren: washing is the outside. Detailing involves washing the outside, and vacuuming, dusting, etc. the inside.
Jen: 🙂
Another type of list is the “Could have done” list – it’s kind of a different tense than the Could do list, hmm…
If you sometimes feel tense because of all the little things you have to remember or tell people or do or whatever, then I highly recommend the book “Getting Things Done”. It’s wikrad.
The approach is to decide up front what the next thing you need to do with an item or idea, and then either:
Decide you’re not going to do it, do it if it takes less than a minute, get someone else to do it, or lastly, defer it for later.
I think the could do list came to my from a podcast on 43folders.com, but I can’t seem to find it now.
Hope it helps!
Luke
(Still not finished his robot)
I’ll be your maid!
🙂