cjsmith | House In Order, day 7

A quick thought --

if the only motivation is "get this off my list", and the list is infinite, you are right.

If there is motivation for the item itself, if completing it brings some coolness into your life, or gets coolness a step closer, that makes the infinitude of the to-do list irrelevant.

My To Do list -- at least the one I'm thinking of for this current "Get My House In Order" challenge -- is infinite because the goal is ill-formed. The list is a big pile of things that will, if all of them are done, allow me to say "I am organized! My house is clean and decluttered! My finances are under control! I know where things are!" To reach that goal... well, see, I'm a perfectionist.

Somehow I can be both pleased that my pictures are in an album AND completely unmoved in my assessment of myself as disorganized. I'm failing to recognize that the coolness is one step closer.

I don't have time to elaborate as I'd like, but if you drag out _Getting Things Done_ and work back through the "project visioning" stuff, you may find that a) it makes more sense now and b) has a lot of application w.r.t motivation.

What does "decluttered" mean for you on an emotional level? For me it means I can move through my house without feeling crowded or bumping into stuff. Maybe for you it means you can lie on your back on the living room floor and luxuriate in the feeling of space. Or in being able to look all around and not see any "visual nagging". Or...?

Thanks, I'll do that. (drag out GTD when I get home, that is.)

Defining the goal is important. Let's see: know where to find things quickly - check, already got that. No "visual nagging" - excellent subgoal, definitely don't have things that way now and I definitely want to. If "clutter" is "things that get in my way when I'm looking for something else", then organized and decluttered means none of that - I'll give myself a C on this and am aiming for at least a B+.

Visual nagging. I bet that's a huge piece. I'm less worried about most of my photos now that they're inside file drawers instead of in a giant pile on top of the cabinets. Finland didn't fit in the drawers, see, so it was out and visible, so... I like this thought.

I hate the emotinal stuff around the infinite todo list, mine currently has about twenty items. But I notice it's not segmented by urgency, importance, etc. I wonder if there's a way to segment it in such a way that I could, sometimes, clear out all the items of sufficent urgency and importance" to have some sense of completion?

*nod* I talked to Rob a bit about this last night, and he suggested I actually keep the To Do list in the Palm. It will sort by (your choice) deadline, priority (1 through 5), and category (you get to make a bunch of categories). Maybe using those capabilities would help. I'm going to give it a go. My to do list for "getting my house in order" is still enormous, but maybe I can give them artificial deadlines and "sort" by what is "due" this month and feel better.

I once read about a system of prioritizing that worked for me when I actually did it. It's easier to decide where to put things with a smaller number of groups, so you take the highest priority items and label them A; take ones that are least important and label them C; then label all the others B.

Then you simply do it again within each group and number them 1, 2 and 3. Now you have nine groups -- A1, A2, A3, B1, and so on.

Then you resolve to get the things on the A1 list done. Since there are fewer of them, it's easier to tackle. If you get those done, you start on A2. Meanwhile, as new tasks come along, you first decide whether they're high priority, low priority, or neither, and then do it again. You don't have to measure a new task against the existing items if that makes it harder for you -- just assign it its own priority and put it wherever it goes. (If it's easier to measure it against the other items, then do that.) Either way, you start each day with the A1 items and work down.

I find it almost impossible to prioritize things, and this actually worked for me for awhile. I never got to the C lists, but that was okay because the important stuff was getting done. If you decide something in a lower category has become more important, maybe because a deadline is approaching, delete it and then start over as if it were a new task, and decide where it goes.

Unfortunately no system works for me long-term ... with my ADHD I need a new stimulus to make me pay attention. Right now my to-do list is so long that I gave up on it (I do not recommend this!). But it got me to do some things that really needed doing at the time, so you might want to give it a try.

I sympathize with finding it difficult to prioritize. There are things I really really really ought to get done -- things that will embarrass the hell out of me, cost bunches of money, hurt someone, or even endanger me if they're not done. Paying health insurance on time, filing taxes, showing up for a square dance I agreed to call, feeding the cats, and that sort of thing are thus "high priority" in that sense. Then there are smaller "shoulds": pay the credit card bill, pay the cellphone bill, show up at work on time...

All that stuff I'd call High Priority, probably the A1 and A2 stuff. This stuff does get done.

That leaves me with the stuff that I "kinda sorta want done": finish sewing a shirt I started, get some old clothes sorted out and sent to Goodwill, make yet another doctor appointment I know will be useless, replace the shower curtain. None of this is critical in any sense. I could safely postpone it forever and it really wouldn't make much difference.

So I sort of have two priority levels: Things I Actually Do and Things I Can Postpone Safely Until I Die. My infinite To Do list is the latter. I'd be *happier* if I did a huge number of them, but any specific one basically doesn't matter.

It does not help that Things I Actually Do take up a huge proportion of my time and energy. There isn't much LEFT for the rest. Yet I know I'll be happier if I do a bunch of it.

Now you can come put all my photos in albums. ;-)

*snicker* See, that's finite. Large probably, but finite. I'd have motivation for such a job.

Maybe that's the key. Instead of saying that at the end of Lent I'll have my entire house organized and beautiful (and if I don't make it I've failed), I could focus only on a smaller piece, such as my photos.

OMG the cat albums alone would weigh tons.

Tell you what, if you'll do mine, I'll dispose of your old Army manuals. :-)

Hrm, I think I should bargain for a different deal. My Army manuals are fine where they are (in a plastic bin in the garage) and those cat albums... wow. :-)

But yeah, "photos" = a finite job. "Decluttered and organized and on top of things" = can always be improved, therefore dangerously like infinite. Useful distinction.

Small goals/baby steps. Whatever it takes. :-)

Yes indeed. Despite most of these To Do things being unnecessary and really not at all important in the grand scheme of things, *I* will feel better if I do them... so hey, that's worth something.

If you have an infinte to do list, your list is too long. Instead of creating a long to do list try making one that's say 5 items long. After that one's done you can say "Yea me!" Wait a day, reassess, and decide what the next 5 things that need to be done most.

That seems to help me.

Yes, I think narrowing the focus is going to be key. None of these NEED to be done (which is part of the problem: if they're not urgent I never do them) but I could pick a few and make those my goal for the day.

House In Order, day 7

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