Yes. I own up. I am a list girl, and I am not ashamed of it. It works for food shopping (when I remember it – unlike this week, where I had to see whether I could work it out from memory). It works for family presents. It even works for Tintin books owned (and those still on the To Look Out For section).
But still…sometimes the list of to dos owns me. It look at me, pointedly, when I have a section on them that just does not shift. That gets written onto the next list, and still doesn’t get done. If I just had a list headed Acquire Children’s Books Second Hand, I’d be ever so effective. (Though my tummy would rumble more.)
So. The trick, I am deciding, is to allocate some list-bashing to points in the day. Or the week. But every now and then, a chunk of time to run errands is called for. Then the list has to apologise for thumbing its nose at me. And I feel freed up again for a bit.
Getting winter boots resoled and heeled. Trickier this one, when the sole type is not covered by some shoe repairers. Thanks to some profitable wisdom swapping at school pick up yesterday, I heard about a new one, and they took them straight away. Grand.
Getting the passport applications off. OK, one has to be redone, but at least we’re moving a bit. Given our enjoyment of travel, lovely friends in other countries, it shouldn’t be a ‘get on with it!’ item, but it has been. Original documents has been part of it, I think.
Heading off to the supermarket which has a photo booth, at a time when it’s quiet. So they don’t mind me sifting through (far too many) photos on the memory card to find the right ones.
Home to insert photos into Christmas cards, chop other photos to insert into Christmas makes, and also time to insert a little coffee into me, during the above.
Post some of the above cards. And head out again, on foot, into one of the brightest (and coldest) winter mornings we’ve had, this sunny month.
And when it all works? Delight? Smugness – hopefully not. Too many other items on the list. Relief. A certain satisfaction that comes from (finally) setting out to do a few things in a couple of hours – and it working.
Back off, list. I won. And I have another much more exciting list ready: my writing topics for December. Stay tuned.