Comments on: To-Do List Series #1 – Why You Need an Outboard Brain

By: Michelle Russell

Michelle Russell — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:30:29 +0000

@JoVE – “MIL” took me a minute but I got it.

I agree that prioritizing isn’t always important–I think it only is when it helps you get into a calmer mental/emotional space. If the prioritization just becomes another task to stress over, don’t bother.

@Barbara – LOL! For what it’s worth, I had my tiny stack o’cards rubber-banded tightly both ways. But the fluttering snowflake cards falling *is* a funny mental image!

Glad you found that blank notebooks work for you. I tend to like lines–I guess I’m too much of a control freak. I mean, what if my writing (gasp!) **wanders up and down???**

By: Barbara Martin (@Reptitude)

Barbara Martin (@Reptitude) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:00:04 +0000

This will be an interesting series. Thank goodness I stopped buying planners years ago, now I use blank notebooks instead.

Honestly, I am having trouble envisioning the stacks and stacks of little cards — fodder for my neverending breadcrumb trail for sure. LOL

I suspect I would bundle them together with an elastic band to keep them from mangling in the bottom of my bag, and then POP the little bundle shatters and they fall from my hand like snowflakes. Or a stack of them awaiting the Great Sorting tumbles like a house of cards.

My attitude might need some adjusting for this project,

By: JoVE

JoVE — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:36:50 +0000

Great post.

2 things occur to me that are sort of related:

1) my MIL always puts a few things she’s already finished at the top of the list and crosses them off. Psychologically very powerful.

2) Sometimes prioritizing isn’t that important. You can start anywhere and make a dent in a big list. I did a post on that last week, I think with a photo of my weedy garden to illustrate

I’m looking forward to more installments.

By: Michelle Russell

Michelle Russell — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:43:16 +0000

@John – Yes, it’s much too easy spin your wheels on prioritizing to the point where you never get to the actual *doing of things.* I’m an inveterate tweaker-of-systems.

If you’ve got a lot to do, you need an effective way of sorting and paring things down quickly so you can get past the care and feeding of your system and on to the things it’s meant to be organizing for you.

I’m fascinated by this whole issue as well, so it’s a good bet I’ll be posting about it quite a bit. ;o)

And I’m glad the post cracked you up–I had a blast writing this one!

By: John Bartucci

John Bartucci — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:39:00 +0000

One of the areas I’m particularly interested with regard to “things that need to get done” is the prioritization of those things and the paring down to just what needs to get done. I agree that there are things we get overwhelmed with that can be deferred to another time. And if they are important enough, probably should get done sooner than later, else drop off the list. In the mean time, I’m gonna look in the park district guide for the next spear-throwing class! This post cracked me up!