Big to do list?

It was in a crowded train station that I first saw this ad. Peak hour. People jostling for position on the platform after a day’s work, eager to head home. The to do lists were fairly humming in the air.

The very nature of these lists means they don’t really end. They rarely get done. They’re just a rolling constant in our lives.

So how do you live with yours?

How do things get on to your list in the first place? (And whose things are they?)
Do you write your list, or do others actually have more of a say about what goes on it? What routinely gets prioritised at the top?

Do you cram as much as you can onto your list? Do you have a hope of achieving all of these things in the time available, or have you set up the system so it’s near impossible and you always feel ‘behind’ somehow? If so, what might that be costing you?

What are you not doing, when you’re answering to your to do list? Are there things that never seem important enough to actually make it onto the list? Maybe lazing in the sun. Wandering with no destination in mind. Just taking a moment to breathe.

It’s easy to get caught up in the moments of the everyday, and to lose ourselves somewhere in our lists. To forget that these everyday moments are all that we have. They add up to create our very lives. So, in a way, as we’re writing our to do lists, they can actually be writing part of us, too.

And what might be on your to be list…?

(c) Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar 2010