Laminated To-Do ListsSidetracked Sisters

to-do lists I am the queen of procrastination. No matter how hard I try or plan to be efficient and punctual, I always seem to fall short. Whether it’s cleaning my house, working in the yard, or some other task I’m not fond of doing, I always seem to find better things to do with my time.

One of my favorite methods of procrastination is making to-do lists. I LOVE lists. I often tease that I’ve got a to-do list to look at my to-do list. Sometimes I’ll go to the extreme and over plan on how I’m going to get something done to the detriment of actually accomplishing the item. For example – cleaning the house… Instead of actually buckling down and cleaning the house, I’ve gone to the extreme of making laminated checklists for each day of the week and each special “zone” in my house for me to refer to. Does this help me actually get the house cleaned? Of course not, but I sure had fun making my pretty lists.

to-do lists Another example would be writing documentation for projects at work. I hate to document my projects and so I will do everything else instead of documenting, then it comes to the end of the project and I need to document the entire process from memory.

Another favorite method of procrastination is binge-watching tv shows. I’ll often start watching a show and I’ll say in my head “OK, when this episode is done, I’ll get up and do xyz”. Of course, when that episode is done and the next one starts, my mind says “OK, just one more episode”. And so goes the day. Before I know it, an entire day is gone and I’ve got nothing done.

I do remember a time recently when I needed to get the house cleaned before a party and I didn’t want to call in the entire family for support to help me get it done, so I took it day by day, room by room and wouldn’t you know it, by the time the party came around, I actually had the house cleaned and didn’t really have much to do on the day of other than finishing the cooking. This event though was the exception rather than the norm. I’m definitely the type of person that works best under pressure. I will admit that on those times that I’ve been proactive and got things done ahead of time, it was rather refreshing, but I don’t know that it’s going to happen consistently.

Maybe I’ll watch some tv and think about it more later.