Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

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July 12, 2012

Carrie Stambaugh: Making a list ...: 7/13/12

Carrie Stambaugh The Independent

ASHLAND — I’m not a procrastinator! I’m deadline driven! That’s what I tell myself when my “to-do” list grows unwieldy, and I begin to feel so overwhelmed the only thing I feel I can accomplish is crawling into bed and pulling the covers over my head.  

Somehow, I always get the really important things done — like work assignments and paying the bills — because they have deadlines.  

But the things that don’t have deadlines are always the hardest tasks for me to complete.

So yesterday, while driving between assignments, I heard an expert on NPR discussing ways to overcome procrastination.

“Sweet,” I squealed! “I’m going to learn something that will make me a to-do-list genius!”

The first suggestion he had was adding things to your to-do list you are most likely NEVER going to do. I can’t quote him directly, but I believe he said something about this tricking your brain so it focuses on getting the achievable things done.

OK, I thought. I can try that. At a red light, I immediately scribbled down a to-do list on a sticky note.

No. 1: Walk on the moon.

No. 2: Clean out the upstairs closet.

No. 3: Journey to the South Pole.

No. 4: File all the bills.

No. 5: Pick a bushel of money from the money tree.

No. 6. Clean out the junk drawer.

I stuck the list on the fridge when I got home, but each time I read it last night the more I began to doubt it will help me.  

The more I thought about it, the more I realized my husband has kind of already been doing this for years. Whenever he has found one of my mostly unfinished lists taped somewhere, he has added his own items to them.  

“No. 4.5:,” he might write between lines, “Hug husband” or “No. 7: Love Carl forever.”

I always smile when I see them, do the immediately accomplishable things and check those items off. Then, since I did something on the list, I often walk away without doing anything else on the list.

I can just imagine what he’ll add to this one when he spots it: No. 8: Watch Carl ride a bull in a rodeo. Or, No. 9: Kiss husband after skydiving.

I now fear I’m such an unmotivated procrastinator I will probably actually do Nos. 8 and 9, both of which I have repeatedly sworn will never happen, before I actually  clean out the closet or the junk drawer.

I can see my logic in action now. “I think I have a pink cowboy hat in the closet. I might want that for the rodeo. I’ll clean the closet out later.”

Or, as I sit down at my desk to file bills, “Most people do survive skydiving. Maybe I could get over my fear.” Five hours later, I’ll still be researching skydiving companies on the Internet, with the bills shoved to the side.

As for the money tree? It might exist, right? We should probably go for a hike this weekend to look for it instead of sorting the junk drawer.

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