To Do Lists

Friday is Food for Thought day. To do lists are a part of almost everyone's modern day lives. Was it always this way? I'm not sure, but to do lists are so prevalent that it seems strange not to have one without feeling rejected by society. (Or is that just me? I do love a good list.) 

I enjoy a couple of blogs about minimalism. Zen Habits is an excellent blog on this subject. Thinking about how you manage those to do lists that we've been so accustomed to using is an interesting prospect. Kill Your To Do List has a minimalist approach on how to manage those pesky to do lists.

Personally, I have been known to write lists, lists, and more lists. It all started back at Coastal Seafoods where my manager had a list of things we needed to accomplish each day. This was in addition to the usual, everyday things that never changed. I always got such a charge from crossing a task off of the list. It has become rather ingrained in me to have a to do list, even if it only has a couple of things on it.

As for using a personal to do list, I sometimes find it more difficult to manage and even depressing at times. I am very hard on myself and often I feel that I need to cross everything off my list. I like author of Zen Habits Leo Babauta's idea of doing one thing at a time. It puts your mental faculties to use on one thing at a time; therefore, being able to focus and be more mindful. Once done with just the one thing, if you feel it's necessary, put just one more thing on the list. How easy is that? I will have to try this out.

Food for Thought: doing one thing at time and getting 'er done! Sounds great to me!