Life is rarely, if ever, clean and simple. But simplicity is a good goal. I think it is fairly common for most folks to stop every once in a while and realize how crazy they have allowed their life and schedule to become. We often keep saying yes to new commitments at work, at home, and in our relationships, even if we don’t have the resources (time, energy, money) to effectively meet those commitments. My todo lists (yes plural), have 691 things, of which 245 are supposed to be done “In the Short Term”. That is a little bit past the line where ridiculous starts. This Saturday I am sitting down for 2 hours and going through those lists. I will start by moving everything to a temporary list, and then really consider the importance, the immediacy, the impact and the investment required for each item. Some things will go on the “need to do soon” list and some will be “need to do TODAY”, but I will be moving as many as I can to a “Someday/Maybe” list, which I can then choose to ignore with abandon. If my list of things to accomplish today is only one or two tasks long, then I stand a chance. If it has 25 things, I will likely procrastinate instead of facing that wall of unfinishable dreck. It was recently pointed out to me by a pretty objective person that I might be a weeee bit A.D.D. (insert eye rolls from my friends and family here). I might as well be pragmatic and figure out how to work around my “oh look, there’s a distraction” tendencies. So… my goal is to pick only 3 things list items each week, and focus on accomplishing just those 3. If I keep it up for 230 weeks, my todo list will be empty.

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