The Power of the To Do List

As another week begins, my porridge is eaten and Milly cat survived her first scrap of the working week (lots of meowing in a neighbouring garden then a scurry back over the fence at high speed), I set about creating this weeks To Do list. 

There is something calming and focused about this for me. It gives shape to the tsunami of thoughts kicking around in my head and creating a slight aftershock in my belly as the number of 'must do's, should have done's, have to begin, must finish..' type of thoughts echo relentlessly in my head. The fact is that letting these thoughts continue unformed creates more anxiety than just pinning them down in a list.

The trick for me is to write it all down and then highlight my priorities of the day in a highlight colour of my choice - today is yellow. Now I have tried using electronic lists (Outlook, Blackberry etc) but there is something completely satisfying at taking an ink pen and crossing something off the list. At the end of the day you can see the progress. Deleting tasks or calling them 100% complete doesn't come near for me. Also electronic To Do lists always get lost in the myriad of other windows I have open on my PC. Whereas the paper copy on my desk is visible (especially with the highlighted bits). 

Call me old fashioned but long live the paper 'To Do!' Oh and I will now cross 'Do Blog' off my list - whooo hooo!!!