To-Donuts

I like to start every morning with a full cup of expectations.  It’s the type A breakfast for champions.  Guilty flakes with a side of stressmeal and to-donuts. My therapist says that my problem is that I’m a perfectionist and can’t see that my standards are unrealistic.  Ha! I say! I’m just ambitious! And time impaired! It’s not my fault that the world won’t listen to me and increase the number of daylight hours and decrease my need for sleep.  When I get to heaven, God and I are going to have a very long chat about optimization of human potential through increased productivity. And this whole calories = pounds thing–I think we could do without it.   Better we fuel the productivity revolution with cheesecake.  I’d better start working on some flip charts. This will be incredibly useful if God does indeed turn out to bear a scary resemblance to Ross Perot. 

Anyway, the over-achiever in me won’t quit despite medical advice, and evidence that reducing my expectations of myself would probably be beneficial in the long term.  Not to mention make me a nicer person to be around.  But it’s this over-achiever in me that was giddy, yes giddy at JellyBelly’s post today.  Man, I love unrealistically huge to-do lists. Which I too, insist on making, like a sick compulsion despite my inability to cross anything off.  Here’s mine (and yes, hitting the road is sounding better all the time–challenge is could I possibly manage to not have a to-do list for the year):

Blog to-do list:
Finish updating blogroll
Update Photo albums
Optimize Skin
Design New Skin
Make weight-loss blogroll
Post last three day’s eating, including all the frozen strawberries

Writing to-do list:
Finish Last Chapter of Novel
Find editor/reader for novel to help edit
Start Next Novel
Finish reading book on non-fiction book proposals
Finish non-fiction book proposal
Finish start Articles due next week
Assemble query letters and clips to sumbit articles to paying publications
Actually attend one of the many writers groups I pencil in on my calendar

Weight-Loss To-do list:
Loose last 15 pounds to goal
Loose another 10 pounds after goal
Stop eating frozen strawberries
Resume measuring
Resume yoga
Increase Exercise
Use weights for more than bookends

Paperwork To-Do List:
Call accountant
Pay at least some of the piddly medical co-pay bills lying around
Sort through paperwork folder, pitch everything expired
Apply for credit card, pitch all other offers
Organize business cards
Organize and purge files

Wedding To-Do List :
Call caterer for wedding reception (like yesterday)
Call alterations place
Get shoes
Make outfit for dog
Get surprise for Freak
Write Vows
Confirm Judge
Order plane tickets

House To-Do List:
Bulldoze Laundry Mountain
Remove clean clothes from top of dryer and begin re-filling drawers
Throw out all the underwear dog has eaten
Purge all too big clothing
Hang Mirror before pets break it
Clean out family room
Rip out family room’s carpeting
Paint family room
Install Lights in Family Room
Order Carpet
Create Artistic Masterpiece for stairwell 
Create mural for odd concrete patch of wall
Fill-in holes dug by dog
Establish kick-ass garden: new pathways, raised beds, and plants
Get Couch
Find breakfast nook under pile of cookbooks
Get dining room table
Paint Bathroom
Install Sliding Tub Doors
Install Towel bars
Paint linen closets
Remove Kitchen wallpaper
Paint Kitchen
Improve traffic flow in kitchen
Tile kitchen counters
Rip out upstairs carpet
Sand and polish hardwoods
Paint living room and dining room?
Finish Attic
Finish Garage into “guest house”                     

Hobby To-Do List
Finish Quilted Wall Hanging that last worked on a year ago
Sew Roman Shades for Living Room
Sew Floor Pillows
Learn to operate sewing machine for more than straight running stitch
Learn to change own bobbin
Organize Scrapbook Materials
Order next batch of pictures from snapfish for scrapbook
Build couch 
Install car stereo that purchased a year ago
Burn mix cd’s that began work on two years ago    
Finish magazine article organization for idea file, organize files
Organize books
Organize office supplies/crafts into nifty storage containers. Ban plastic from house.

Pet To-Do List
Talk to vet about possibility of Prozac for cats    
Get automatic litter boxes. Perhaps 3?
Clean out dog’s toy box removing unrecognizable items
Sew more bandanas for dog
Clean out dog's room

I’d add more but I have to be realistic about what can be done in a weekend.

P.S. Would I be a complete psycho if I added that I felt really good at the end of this little brain purge? In that, I actually realized that there's a lot LESS to do than I thought, and that I'm actually happier with my life than I thought.  Scary.  Saved from the depths of depression by OCD.  More on Dr. Phil

Comments

[clanna]

Whew!!! just making the list must have been exhausting! But, hey! So glad it made you feel purged to get it done. Now it that the list for the MONTH or what? Maybe for Lent? Yeah, by Easter you could have all that done. Sure. And btw, you should make the dog clean her own room! (she has her own room ????)

[tanya]

WOW! Those are impressive lists and I know you'll get it all accomplished..

I feel so inadequate. My lists are basically..."clean house, edit novel, prepare for grad school..."

well, okay, since i got admitted, I have to rethink my to-do lists for the next six months. :) as in, actually write them.

[Day]

Okay, getting to the end of that truly exhausted me.

It was the "sew new bandanas for dog" which got to me. I have been a bad bad doggie mom in this department (by the way, we love Caylis!).

God I need to make a list.

See what you've started?!

[JJ]

Oh!!! I didn't even mention my novel! And towel bars, yes, in all three bathrooms. Ooooh so much I left out...

[natalie]

oh, girl, reading your to-do list actually got me stressed....now i'm starting to think about all the stuff i need to do. yikes!

[Bubblehead]

Sent by Michele, but glad I came by. Enjoy your site very much and will be back.

[Old Horsetail Snake]

Well-organized person like you will get that stuff done in a day and a half, tops. If you're just going to laze around....

By the by, why don't you buy yourself a Home Depot store all at once, rather than piece by piece?

Hi! I was sent by wavybrains...

[eve]

Do you want to play the "who's more OCD?" game with me? I think I'd win because I like to make Excel spreadsheets for my to-do lists... complete with little boxes for checkmarks as things get done. Crossing off is ooooh-so Type B. :)

[wavybrains]

I've done spreadsheets. I've even asked my programmer Freak to create a spreadsheet for me to keep track of how I spend the hours in my day. My latest method involves small index cards that I carry around with me and re-order according to priorities. Yeah, I'm complusive :P