The Curse of The List

The problem with lists is that they collapse, like a long telescope, the multitude of tasks that should take several months to achieve onto the one page and into the one moment. And I stare at that one page and start drowning in a sea of overwhelming panic at all these things that I now know I have to achieve because they are on The List. My ‘now’ becomes hobbled by the very existence of The List and I lose my ability to be productive. The List has powers, I promise you.

So, last night, I boldly decided to throw away said List. It went something like:

1. Get through the Class Assembly
2. Get really, really good at Spanish in one month
3. Write just shy of 200 School Reports
4. Don’t swear in the Staff Room
5. Prune the privet
6. Take 48 children to Cornwall for a week (and all the worrying steps in between... which, yes, I also listed in detail)
Bla-bla-di-bla-bla...
59. Meet a man who’s a ‘Keeper’

...and, instead, I made myself just focus on today and what I wanted to achieve. You know what? I’m definitely on to something! Admittedly, I didn’t achieve anything on The List per se, but I wasn't a slave to it and I didn’t worry about it either. Makes me wonder if some of the great adventurers in History would have ever started out on their journeys had they known of each hurdle along the way. I guess they just kept going, one step at a time, undefeated, and with a sense of moving forward in the right direction.

In the meantime, I think I might try writing lists of the retrospective variety instead... jotting achieved tasks down, just so I can tick them off. Yes.