House In Order, day 7

[cjsmith]

All my pictures from that one trip are in the albums. Still awaiting reprints from Rob.

The problem with getting something done from my To Do list is that my To Do list is infinite. I have absolutely zero motivation to get something ELSE done. It won't make a bit of difference.

Comments

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

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?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*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.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

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.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

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.