July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Lists for lists (7/7/03)
As I See It
So what are you doing this weekend? I have plans to paint the trim on the house, fix the gutters, set out a couple plants, pull weeds and do a million other things that need to be done. My list is only two pages long but it is growing faster than a thistle in one of my flower beds.
The trim was going to be a simple matter of scraping loose paint and covering the whole thing with yet another coat of white until my husband came up with the idea of using a different color. Wow! I get to use color. This opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. Now we have choices to make.
The house is white with black shutters so we can choose almost any hue. I asked if I could paint it pink and he said it would be OK on the condition that he could refer to it as “my wife’s house.” I grew up in a pink house so maybe I’ve had enough of pink. I think we will go with some other option instead.
Everyone I know has an agenda of stuff they want to do. We have become a nation of list makers. We make lists of things to buy at the grocery and lists of things we want to accomplish in our lives. Sometimes we are so busy making lists that nothing ever gets crossed off; we just make another list that says, “cross things off previous lists.” (Don’t tell me you have never done this!)
I have found that the secret to being able to check things off is to make the lists as specific as possible. For example, I would never write “clean house” as one of the dreaded jobs I have to do. Instead, I write “feed fish, rehang curtains, tell Gracie to quit climbing curtains,” and other chores that I am going to do anyway. Sprinkled in with easy stuff are tasks that take several days, such as “weed the lot line, or put pictures in album.”
It seems that we are expected to do several things at once. If we are only doing one thing at a time then it just isn’t enough. My daughter recently called me. At the time she was driving, talking on the phone and fishing around for a bottle to give to her niece who was repeating, “Bah, bah, bah …” on and on and on. For her to be doing only one thing at a time is almost impossible. She pays for all this efficiency by having migraines that force her to stop and take care of herself.
Sometimes I wonder when we lost the ability to concentrate only on what we are doing at the time. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone when you could tell that they only pretended to be listening? I tend to stop in mid-sentence when this happens. No use in bothering to say anything if someone is only half listening.
Women’s magazines are filled with ways we can make better use of our time. We are encouraged to read or make lists while we are waiting in line. We are told we can catch up on little projects while we wait for our children to finish their many over-scheduled activities. There are oodles of articles with titles like “20 Things You Can Do While Waiting For a Light to Change.” Funny, none of the suggestions even hint at doing nothing other than staring at the light and letting the mind wander.
I am a big fan of letting the mind go blank. By giving ideas or problems time to marinate the brain finds new ways of looking at things. It can find solutions to problems or sometimes it can even think of new things to add to my many lists.[[In-content Ad]]
The trim was going to be a simple matter of scraping loose paint and covering the whole thing with yet another coat of white until my husband came up with the idea of using a different color. Wow! I get to use color. This opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. Now we have choices to make.
The house is white with black shutters so we can choose almost any hue. I asked if I could paint it pink and he said it would be OK on the condition that he could refer to it as “my wife’s house.” I grew up in a pink house so maybe I’ve had enough of pink. I think we will go with some other option instead.
Everyone I know has an agenda of stuff they want to do. We have become a nation of list makers. We make lists of things to buy at the grocery and lists of things we want to accomplish in our lives. Sometimes we are so busy making lists that nothing ever gets crossed off; we just make another list that says, “cross things off previous lists.” (Don’t tell me you have never done this!)
I have found that the secret to being able to check things off is to make the lists as specific as possible. For example, I would never write “clean house” as one of the dreaded jobs I have to do. Instead, I write “feed fish, rehang curtains, tell Gracie to quit climbing curtains,” and other chores that I am going to do anyway. Sprinkled in with easy stuff are tasks that take several days, such as “weed the lot line, or put pictures in album.”
It seems that we are expected to do several things at once. If we are only doing one thing at a time then it just isn’t enough. My daughter recently called me. At the time she was driving, talking on the phone and fishing around for a bottle to give to her niece who was repeating, “Bah, bah, bah …” on and on and on. For her to be doing only one thing at a time is almost impossible. She pays for all this efficiency by having migraines that force her to stop and take care of herself.
Sometimes I wonder when we lost the ability to concentrate only on what we are doing at the time. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone when you could tell that they only pretended to be listening? I tend to stop in mid-sentence when this happens. No use in bothering to say anything if someone is only half listening.
Women’s magazines are filled with ways we can make better use of our time. We are encouraged to read or make lists while we are waiting in line. We are told we can catch up on little projects while we wait for our children to finish their many over-scheduled activities. There are oodles of articles with titles like “20 Things You Can Do While Waiting For a Light to Change.” Funny, none of the suggestions even hint at doing nothing other than staring at the light and letting the mind wander.
I am a big fan of letting the mind go blank. By giving ideas or problems time to marinate the brain finds new ways of looking at things. It can find solutions to problems or sometimes it can even think of new things to add to my many lists.[[In-content Ad]]
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