By SHIRL MALINA, guest columnist
Do you make lists? Especially to-do lists? Do you then lose the list?
Since objects do not de-materalize — they exist somewhere, in some form — I prefer to think of it as simply having “misplaced” that for which I am seeking. It seems the more odious the tasks on my list, the more likely I am to “misplace” said list!
In an attempt to bring order to what had become chaos, I hit upon what has worked well for me.
Create a “Jobs Jar” of sorts; write each task on a small slip of paper, fold it once, and place it in an open container. (Having a sizable number of tasks makes for a wide choice — some quick and easy, others not so much.)
The procedure is simple: reach in, take a slip of paper and proceed to accomplish that job on your to-do list. The key to this is to have a second container into which you place your crumpled, completed-task paper.
The satisfaction of watching the first collection decrease as the second grows is quite therapeutic. Since this is a self-created, personal Jobs Jar, one always has the option of returning a first draw for a substitute if time or available energy does not allow for completion at the moment.
As new jobs arise, and they always will, put them on a slip of paper and add them to the Jobs Jar. It works for me.
As I am wont to say: “What I do, I do well. What I don’t do well, I don’t do at all — and you should see how poorly I dust!”
It still comes as a bit of a surprise when my mind says to do or engage in some activity and my body answers, “Who, me?” The reality is that each end of the age spectrum is somewhat similar.
As a child, we had few strengths and skills. As we matured, we developed many; as superannuated folks, some skills are no longer part of our repertoire, and strengths diminish. If one recognizes this as true for all of us, it changes nothing but our mental outlook, and as I see it, that is the key to everything.
As the British author James Allen observed, “As a man thinketh, in his heart so is he.”
Shirl Malina of Brown County is an occasional columnist for the Brown County Democrat. She can be reached through the newspaper at [email protected].
