works for me wednesday: on my list

Lists. You either love 'em or hate 'em. I love them and hate them. But they usually work for me.

I sometimes keep a running list of things that need to be done. A few months back while blog surfing, I came across a post in which the blogger mentioned that she keeps a notebook in which she records her To Do list. She starts by putting the date at the top of the page and throughout the week adds and crosses off as things get done or new things come up. At the end of the week (or whenever the list starts to look cluttered), she starts a new page with the current date and carries over the things remaining to be done and continues on from there, again crossing off and adding as the case may be. I did this for a few weeks and actually found it to be very helpful. Instead of having scrap pieces of paper and junk mail envelopes in several places around the house with my To Do list on it, it was all in one place, easy and accessible. I'm going to dust off my notebook and put it to work again.

The past couple of weeks, I've found a smaller list - essentially a To Do Today list - to work for me.  I keep it small, usually no more than five points, and make sure that those five things aren't all "heavy" things but rather a mix of big and small tasks. Today's list reads:

• groceries to storage room {I have a large box of canned and boxed items to go downstairs to my "overflow pantry"}
• laundry away
• spaghetti sauce (and thaw meatballs)
• rec room {this is the "heavy" task today; it's a bit of a mess}
• budget {enter in receipts from the past few days}
• watermelon lemonade {to use up the watermelon and lemons in the fridge}

I'm going to mix up spaghetti sauce to simmer and then carry the laundry and groceries downstairs and go from there. I do like to see the list getting smaller as I cross things off. And seeing as yesterday was a rather productive day for me, I know I need to make today somewhat productive as well. My son is at daycamp this week (and next) and I have no excuse not to use this time to get things done. Not to mention my Two Things Tuesday challenge deadline is on Sunday.

Kristen of We are THAT Family hosts Works for Me Wednesday every week. If you have some time, take a look through the over 200 contributions currently on her blog.