I love to-do lists. Goals, plans, schedules. My running buddy and I plan to exercise every weekday at the same time. I say I’ll start the dishwasher every night and shine my sink (thanks FlyLady). We go to school and church and dance class like clockwork.
Before each school year, I map out our day in 15 minute increments, and this autumn I spent hours on an incredible meal plan that includes this color-coded table.
The colors indicate the suggested starch accompaniment. I have another document with weekly shopping lists and hyperlinks to allrecipes.com.
Do I ever meet my goals? Sometimes. Do I start the dishwasher every night? Maybe three times a week.
Have I ever, ever used this meal plan to guide my shopping and cooking? Nope.
But still I stick with the list-making and the illusion-of-structure perpetuating. The planning and preparing satisfies my desire for control, my optimism that if only I lived one day perfectly, everything would fall into its proper place.
In reality, if I’ve exercised four days this week already, and I get a day off unexpectedly, it’s as exciting as finding a ten dollar bill in an old purse. If I have this idea in my head of what dishes I could make, when I get to Wal-mart and the kids are screaming, I can usually think of three things to make in under thirty minutes.
Whatever chaotic plane I really exist on, my myth-building of organization and order keeps me sane. And that’s what works for me.
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Emily H. (2)
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Great post!
It’s all about the plan!
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I make lists too and only sometimes follow them too. For me it’s all just about trying to be more organized and those lists are a start. Some day I will use them effectively and be totally organized.
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I love planning. Each new year I buy myself a brand spankin’ new leather bound day planner and SO enjoy layng out my day. I admire your thoroughness!!
Even if it doesn’t all happen, you approach each day as though you’ve got the world by the tail!
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I just feel better knowing that if I don’t feel like trying any new recipes and can’t think what to make the next day all I have to do is look at my list of things to make and go in order. Anything to keep me from having to think every time I go shopping!
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I do the same thing. Sometimes I think that if I stopped making lists and trying to plan out my life I might get something done. Hmm I think trying to plan things out is much more fun than actually doing the things I plan.
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I just downloaded the daily planner from motivatedmoms.com and it is simplifying my to do list in some ways but I still don’t get the list checked off. It is hard not to feel like I failed and be happy with just something done off the list. I am kind of a “all or nothing” kinda person. I sure hope this builds character in me.
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LOL me and the Flylady had a falling out. Im just too busy to be organized. LOL Currently my home is filled with to do lists and plans not one is being used.
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I think there should definitely be a balance between order and chaos. I make a list of meals each week and shop accordingly, but I don’t set the meals for specific days. I just make what I feel like each night. And sometimes I’ll be too tired to make dinner, so we’ll have spaghettios or something and I’ll bump that meal to the next week. No need to be rigid about it.
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I’m starting to use 37 Signals’ Tada Lists again. They are super-usable, drag-and-drop lists.
Google also has a tasks widget that you can drag to your customized Google home page.
As far as goal tracking, Spark People has an excellent goal tracking tool, even though the focus of their site is more on tracking food.
I once tried Stephen Covey’s Plan Plus software, but it didn’t quite do it for me (kind of went the way of the day planner). Then I switched to gmail, so the Outlook integration was no longer appealing.
I find that having a helpful, supportive spouse is the best way to reach your goals. My wife is like my personal coach/trainer, who doesn’t let me lay on the couch or sit at the computer doing nothing. She encourages me to be better. I know, because when she’s gone, I tend to laze around unproductively.
I think we like goals because they give us, however elusive, the idea that we’re progressing in life.
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