Getting things done

I am a "to do list" kind of person. I look for different way of keeping the thousands of things I need to do organized in such a way that I can take care of the most critical things first. Somethings like, "Break down the broken dresser and take out to garbage" are one time deals and feel good crossing off my to do list. Others, such as paying bills and the like, make me feel like I am running in a hamster wheel. I see it coming up and I wonder to myself, "Ugh! Didn't I just DO that?" Unfortunately most of my list is of the hamster wheel type.

It also seems like my list can be divided into different categories of work. Home business, Outside yard, outside car, home repair, housecleaning, work related, volunteer, dad stuff, husband stuff, etc and each of those have their own priorities. Even those are further subdivided into things, the kids can do, kids do with help, Elizabeth can do, stuff we have to do together, stuff only I can (or am willing) to do. After a bit of thinking about it, it starts to blur until it is difficult to know where to begin and of all of the beginnings, which one is screaming loudest.

Most unusually, that is when I am in my element. I am a multitasker by nature and as a multitasker, unless I am using a good portion of my capacity, I bore with things quite easily. For example, as I type this I am ripping music from my CD collection for a trip next week, monitoring the washing and drying of laundry and will be after this post is done, straightening up my office some.

May not sound like a lot right off, but I am often doing or monitoring several things at once and at times I can get a lot accomplished in a short space of time. Yay me.

Every once in a while I look at the things I need to do and sometimes wish I could take some time off and just get everything caught up. Everything done that is waiting to be done. I have ahd projects, even some little tasks that have been on the back burner for years but still have not been done. Priorities change, tasks change, even roles change and many of the things that had been working their way to the top of the list get buried again by a pile of new stuff.

I would like to find a good way if doing it without spending so much time managing it. At times I spend two hours planning, organizing, and preparing two hours worth of work. Sometimes it is easier to forgo all of the formal stuff and just plow right in. Of course I have been burned by that and two hours of work became ten hours due to problems, setbacks and even sidetracks that would have been prevented with proper planning. Imagine that! a catch 22 working its way in. Whee!

Still despite these problems, I still get satisfaction from wrapping up a big project or getting caught up on something I should be doing all along. For instance, I have washed a lot of laundry today and I still have a couple of loads to go before calling it a night. In the meantime, I would love to get more stuff done so pardon me while I check "new blog post" off on my to do list and get on to something else.