Today, I slept in (waking up at 8:30), read a chapter of The Authenticity Project by Clare Poole (it's so charming!), gathered breakfast and felt like I could have a lazy Sunday. Only then I realized I had no less than 5 committments all happening concurrently or back to back, so I needed to hustle up and pull my life together.
I felt defeated before I even began.
The to-do list is to blame!
And as much as I love making lists and the satisfaction of crossing items off the cross, I think to-do lists are sometimes, inadverently stressful. It's not the to-do list's fault; it is just that the to-do list by very definition lists all the things that have been left undone, pending and urgently needed.
A to-do list can be a bit like having an abusive friend who points out that you might need to lose a few pounds when you ask her how you look in your swimsuit.
I think I need to expand my friend group and get a new friend to act as a buffer to the To-Do List.
And friends, that new friend is The Done List.
The Done List today includes: reading my book, feeding my children three meals, running to basketball and cookie booths and musical rehearsals, prepping Valentine's for school and for my kids, making Super Bowl food, gathering a hostess gift, doing a Peleton Ride, picking up endless debris (over and over and over again) and writing Yoke. There are other things I will do tonight; but I am not going to list the things I have to do. Instead, later, I'll write them down (with the items above) and think:
Wow, I am doing more than I realize.
And you know what friends, you are all doing more than you realize. It's time to realize it. It's time to balance the To-Dos with the The Done's; the unfinished with the completed and to acknowledge that we don't to do more; we just, maybe, have to acknowledge everything we've done (and I bet money you did a lot a today without even realizing it.)
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