Checking It Twice
It’s no secret that I’m a born list-maker. I made exhaustive lists when I was growing up of things I wanted to do, my daily routines, books I read, places I wanted to go, and everything else under the sun. Nowadays I still love to write things down, although it’s more for survival’s sake. Whenever I’m not keeping up with my planner and writing things down as I think of them, I feel like I’m going to forget them – especially now, during a season of life when there are so many details to try to remember.
However, there are dangers inherent with the art (can it be called an art? So many things are titled that nowadays) of list-making. For instance, you can get so caught up in writing things down and planning them out that you never actually set about accomplishing them. This has been me a lot! I would make out the perfect plan of what I was going to get accomplished, and then I would never get started because I was intimidated and lazy when confronted with the seemingly monolithic task ahead.
Related to that, you can write so many things down that you never even want to attempt to begin, or you can write so few things down that writing them down at all is pretty much pointless.
The reason I wrote this post is because I was just finishing the day and dozens of thoughts of things I needed to remember and accomplish tomorrow and the next day were swirling around in my head. Our wedding is in a little over six weeks, there are so many things to coordinate and plan, I work full-time, I have bills to pay, I have people to keep up with, and I want to be a Mary instead of a Martha! So I just took a minute and jotted down everything I could think of that I wanted to remember at that moment. Now that it’s safely committed to paper, I feel a lot better and not like I’m going to forget everything I was trying to remember.
I guess I’m still a list-maker at heart.
Oh, so am I! My computer desktop is practically covered in the Post-It Lite software – everything from daily reminders to addresses I need to transcribe into my planner, to Scripture verses I’m memorizing, to favorite quotes and homework assignments. It can be overwhelming!
But, Carolyn Mahaney has a great system for our “to-do” lists on her girltalk blog – she writes down a “Master Plan” list of EVERYTHING she needs to accomplish, then pares it down to priorities and time-constrained things which she can schedule manageably. That has helped me so much, because it can be SO daunting to look at pages and pages of things that must be done, and should have been done yesterday! I pray the Lord grants you peace of mind and a heart content in His strength and provision.
Amen sister
I’m a list-er, too! In fact, I have to be careful or I can irritate my family members by making lists for them as well. And they don’t always appreciate it. If only I were as good at doing the things on my list as I am at making the lists in the first place!
Yep, I’m part of the ranks of list makers too! I have actually converted one of my friends as well!!