Things to do in layers
Today I looked at my calendar for this month. There aren’t many events written on it, and yet my days are still full. My days are full of things which are too small or too regular to make it onto the calendar. I don’t write down “get kids ready for school” or “Pick kids up from school” because those things happen every weekday. Instead the calendar is devoted to reminding me about the less regular events. Unfortunately this means that an empty calendar day does not mean I have nothing to do.
My things to do list comes in layers. There are things to do for the businesss. There are things to do for the house. There are things to do for Howard. There are things to do for the kids. There are things to do for me. There are things to do for my faith. There are things to do to build friendships. I can’t work all the time, but frequently I take a break from one list by doing things on a different list. This works particularly well for the kid list because mostly what the kids want me to do is sit still and pay attention to their things. But some days I reach the end of the day and feel like there has never been a break at all. The lists feel unending, but they can’t be abandoned because all the things are important.
At those moments, when the lists of things to do seem to rule my life, I need to remember that I am the creator of the lists. I have the power to edit or discard them. I won’t pitch the lists, because the things on them are important to me, but it feels good to know that I could if I so choose.