The Boss of You

Emira and I are both a little, shall we say, to-do-list-centric. We both rely heavily on our to-do lists to get through our days, because a typical day for us requires us to wear many hats, and frankly if we tried to keep all that stuff in our heads we would probably go a little loony-tunes.

I love my to-do lists so much that recently I picked up a copy of OmniFocus, which I use at home to track all of my various personal projects. I don’t keep work-related stuff in there, but I do keep everything from “go to the gym” to “install that new shelf in the bathroom” to the many, many book-related things that are on my current list of things to get done. OmniFocus has received the official stamp of approval from the “Getting Things Done” folks, but it isn’t only for GTD adherents; I’ve never read Getting Things Done but I’m loving OmniFocus for the way it helps me track all the stuff I used to try to keep organized via dozens of lists “filed” all over the house.

Anyway, all this to say that I’m just the teensiest bit compulsive about making to-do lists and crossing things off them. However, I’m also working hard at not letting the lists rule my life. If it turns out I really need to read the new Buffy comic more urgently than I need to hang the bathroom shelf, I’m getting better at going with the couch time. But I need constant reinforcement that my list of “shoulds” is neverending and frequently far less important than it may seem in the heat of the hyper-productivity-focused moment.

If you’re like me, and you need some words of encouragement to put the to-do list down and go play outside, then hie thee in the direction of Mark Morford’s latest gem:  “Read this column before you die: 1,000 sights, 1,000 books, a few hundred drugs, 397 kinky positions, one million blasphemies. Get busy.”

(And if  you enjoy that, you might also want to pick up a copy of Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal. It’s full of really good exercises for the recovering Type A personality.)