Becoming genie. Not That Resolute.

It is January 4. I have not written a single Resolution, not even in an article about the Resolution Committee at September’s Gun Rights Policy Conference. This is highly unusual because I am a List Person. I have lists of everything.

A few years ago I learned a very good motivational tool, calling one’s ‘ToDo’ List ‘Accomplish’ instead. This works fairly well for my short-term lists, but gets less and less effective as the time frame expands. Possibly this is my fault, because I began with a Master List on which I put every single thing that I thought needed doing. This Master List was housed in its own separate book.

However, I ended up with a Master List, Accomplish This Year, Accomplish This Month, Accomplish This Week, and Accomplish Today. On my Year list I had tasks listed that needed to be done at various frequencies:  yearly, multiple times per year, monthly, weekly, multi-times per week, and daily. This whole setup required a lot of time and effort to create, and is under constant re-evaluation.

The Master List bit the dust because the best part of a list is the check mark. Sometimes, the only thing that you can accomplish is one checkmark. (I do not do the Frog and Toad trick of having my first item Make a List, although there are days I wish I had.) However, having an item on the Master, Yearly, Monthly, Weekly and Today lists is a lot of checking. I do not do that checking as I go along. Rather, I go over what I have done near the end of the week, the month, the year. There is nothing as inspiring as knowing the time is coming to a  close and knowing you will force yourself to circle undone items, to get you in gear to finish a task. That inspiration is, of course, the reason List Makers make lists. If we simply could get up and do the things that need to be done, with or without the help of Powdermilk Biscuits, we would not need prompts to keep on the right track.

Still, the time and effort needed to find an item for its final check led to the demise of my Master List. Instead, everything went on the Yearly list. Therein lies the problem. Many things I need and want to accomplish take longer than one year. Some goals are simply far in the future, needing many preparatory steps. But, constant entries on new lists has a weakening effect on the determination to actually accomplish things.

There was a time that I wrote down everything that I thought should be done in a day and then prioritized the list. That extra step has disappeared, although if there is something that absolutely must be done, I will put a little star scribble in front to get my attention throughout the day.

Still. Here it is, January 4. I have 13 items on my Accomplish This Year 2017 (this is 2016 with the 7 over scribed because everything was copied from last year) and one word and the first letter of the second word on Item 14. The notebook from which I am copying the list has three full college ruled pages. There was no reflection in the waning days of the last year because my life is incredibly frantic at this time.

Luckily, I have the personal confidence to use today and possibly several other days, getting my lists in order. Possibly, also, I might make a resolution or two in the coming days since to date I have only one. Use only one space at the end of sentences. Very difficult for someone who learned to type over 59 years ago, and worked for many years as a typist. But, I am becoming genie, a magnificently organized, competent person,  and she loves a challenge.

 

Genie Jennings

About Genie Jennings

My blog, as my life, is composed of many interests. Because you are reading this, we must share at least one. They are divided into categories, so you can easily find others on our mutual topic. Also, you can avoid things on which we might diverge. Things labeled 'genie' are general life musings. When I took up fly fishing in earnest, I was struck by how much it was like skiing to me. It is an intricate activity that is easy to enter, and the more one knows, the more one realizes how little one knows. My comment was, "I would love to have something I love that does not require so much effort." I immediately knew that was not true. It is the striving that makes things valuable, and it is the striving that is life. I am evolving; I am becoming many things, a skier, a fly fisherman, an irrationally self-reliant human. I am becoming 'genie' whoever that might be.