Definition of Tomorrow

I've been busy lately: out-of-state visitors, new year of school starting for the Barbarians, me starting a new job (which I will talk about in a future post), basketball coaching, band rehearsals... the list of 'things' going on is quite lengthy. Plus there's the normal day-to-day things that have to be done.

The result is my 'to-do list' is forever long. I find myself more and more looking at what I hoped to get done today and moving it to tomorrow's list.

I now realise my understanding of tomorrow has been inaccurate all these years. This is the revised and corrected definition of tomorrow:

Tomorrow [tuh-mawr-oh] (n): the magical land where everything gets done

I love tomorrow; shame I haven't been able to find it. Do you struggle with today versus tomorrow?

Stop being overwhelmed - use sand!

There are times when my to-do-list gets out of hand. It's worse when multiple things on the list are urgent, or particularly icky things to do. Usually I can get stuck in and work through it, but there are times when I seem to find anything else better to do. That list gets daunting sometimes! I read something recently that struck a chord with me, not because it was a new idea but because it was expressed so well.

The person used the analogy of an hour glass. Basically the idea is to tackle one grain of sand at a time. What's the next best thing to do right now? Do that thing. If you tackle each grain of sand eventually you'll have made your way through the list.

I usually have that approach. I start with the quickest or easiest and as the list shortens it isn't as scary.

How do you manage your to-do-lists?

The End

I get excited about writing "The End". Usually it's because I've reached the end of my 72,000 words and the draft is finished. A very huge moment in the life of a manuscript.

In this case, though, the end is about finishing my study. I'm sticking my head up after staggering through the peak essay and exam period at the end of semester. A rather horrid time to go through, with lots of 'you must have been nuts to do this', but once it's over there's a tremendous sense of satisfaction (until the results come in, lol).

I haven't completely finished. There's still a practical assessment (over 1 day) to go. But with nothing to do beforehand, or to take away after that day, it is, for all intents and purposes, done and dusted.

Of course, everything else in my life was left in a great big pile of 'to do' lists which I am now slowly but surely making my way through. With luck, by Friday I'll have caught up and the 'to do' lists will be back to normal length.