Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

To do list

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Here is a list of things I want to do or already do do every day:

  • Meditate for 15 to 30 minutes.
  • Do active meditation/self-hypnosis on one issue in particular: writing, weight, etc. 15-20 minutes.
  • Exercise for 30-60 minutes.
  • Spend some time alone with Darin.
  • Read a book.
  • Play with kids.
  • Write for 2-3 hours.
  • Cook dinner.
  • Write NKA entry.
  • Clean kitchen.
  • Tidy house.
  • Do a load of laundry.
  • Read favorite blogs.

I think it’s pretty obvious something is going to have to go. This makes me tired just writing it, let alone figuring out how to fit it all into my day.

Comments

  1. “Make a Better Me” lists are always fatiguing. I stopped doing them years ago.

    But, on the other hand, I started adding my wishes to my daily routine one at a time, slooooowly, and I’m doing pretty well.

    In the next few months I’d like to add 20 min of yoga 2-3 times a week, do serious reading for 2 hours a week, and relearn all the German grammar I’ve forgotten, and start studying Latin. ACK! I just wrote a list! Grrr.

    Actually, I think I can do all that, over 8 months. Breathe deep. Baby steps.

  2. The wife and I are thinking of trying an approach of committing to doing a set of things several times a week, charting on a piece of paper our history over each week in the past few months. That might be less daunting than going for every day.

    We’ll see how it goes.

  3. Try tacking on “work eight hours, do all household shopping, clean up daily disaster perpetrated by dogs/boy/mind-bogglingly inconsiderate husband” and you’ll understand why some of us have to let the meditating, writing and exercise go, and why some of us also think you might want count your blessings. Sorry I only comment when I disagree, overall I really enjoy your blog.

  4. True. I don’t work eight hours a day. I get all the other stuff though, thanks. Still haven’t unloaded the car from the last quarterly visit to Costco. And I have to do the bills this week.

    If I let the meditating and exercising go, then I do nothing for myself. And that’s a one-way ticket to the funny farm.

    And writing is ostensibly what I want to do with my life. That’s the one that is by far the least negotiable, now that I’m doing it again.

  5. Jeez, I’m not sure why I can’t let this entry go. I certainly don’t want to give the impression that I believe myself to be Supermartyrmom. I’m sooooo not. I chose the life I lead, full-time job and bonehead husband included, and I’m lucky to have it and to be able to say that it was my choice. I teach at an urban school and deal every day with girls to whom such choices as marriage and a profession are at best lofty dreams, and for some, bridges already burnt before they turn 18.

    I’ve read your blog from beginning to end, and you are a very lucky woman in your own right. You should embrace your list and not bewail it.

    And, I’ll admit, especially in the wake of your NaNoWriMoPoPoWhatever experiences, I’m just jealous, jealous, jealous about the writing. I’ve been unable to replace the gushing font of creativity what got dried up by marriage and kid with the necessary discipline, and I dribble with envy at anyone who does manage to accomplish what you did.

    So in short (too late for that), if I had your list, I’d bounce out of bed everyday a-rarin’ to get to work on it.

    Fortune is purely a matter of perception. So I shall go away now and get to work at percieving my own to-do list in a similarly positive light.

    Peace.

  6. I think you have misunderstood the purpose of the entry. Or perhaps I wasn’t clear enough (always possible). These are the things I would like to get done during each day. That I would feel as though I had had a good, productive day. It is not in any way, shape, or form the sum total of what I do every day. (In fact, most of the things on that list never get done. I do a whole variety of other things, from the banal to the annoying to the occasionally fun.)

    Yes, I am fortunate. Do I have to mention in every single entry how I know I’m fortunate? Comparing my situation to that every other person in the world? Seriously, I’d explode. I’d certainly never write another entry.