Okay, okay, I'll write something!

It's 10:38 here in my world, and to be quite honest, I don't feel like writing.  But, here I am, and yes I marched myself up here to the computer in the chilly dormer room although I would rather be under my favorite blanket reading a book. I'm not sure my writing effort for today will be worth reading, but National Blog Post Month (NaBloPoMo) will hopefully be a great way to make writing every day a habit, however bad the product may be.

So today's "prompt" is this:
"Friday, January 3, 2014
Do you have a tendency to procrastinate, or do you like checking things off your to-do list?"

Hmmm.  Can I answer this tomorrow?  Just kidding.  I have made many to-do lists in my life.  For some reason, they don't work. Possibly because the act of writing it all down feels like enough of an accomplishment and the pressure to actually do those things is no longer there? Or perhaps I am overwhelmed by the list? Actually one thing I have done, which seems to help me be able to actually check things off, is write just three of the most pressing things to do for that day on a post-it note. Preferably a brightly colored post-it. I tried this one day, and I will say that by the end of the day, it felt pretty good to have checked off those three things and thrown that note away. A smaller list, written on a smaller piece of paper...much less daunting perhaps.

However, sometimes it doesn't matter how many to-do lists I write or where/how I write them, because being a stay-at-home parent means that your "plans" for the day - any day - are largely meaningless.  IF I am able to accomplish something, anything, I count it as a mark in the "win" column and pat myself on the back.  For instance, today I didn't have a plan for the day - other than going out to get dog food, which didn't happen anyway because my older daughter was just diagnosed with "primary generalized epilepsy" and is still getting used to her medication, and I didn't want to leave her home alone. So, Sophie helped me take down the Christmas tree (taking lights out of a Christmas tree = #4 on my list of the most irritating things on earth), and I also vacuumed the first floor and upstairs. Definitely a pat-myself-on-the-back kind of day. Of course, in the process of putting the tree away, I added an item to my to-do-at-some-point-in-the-future list: throw out every freaking thing in the attic...

Later,
Jen