To-do list

Are you one of those people who makes a written list every day, a list of things you need to do and when they need doing? Or are you one of those people who makes a mental list of things to do? Or are you one of those people who just takes care of stuff and doesn’t worry about making lists?

I read somewhere that people who make lists are generally very efficient, organized and the kind of can-do people who get things done. In other words, the kind of people you can count on to do stuff, as opposed to the kind of people you can count on to screw things up badly if it ever gets done at all.

In an attempt to better organize myself and seat myself firmly in the camp of “very efficient and etc.” people, I decided I needed to make a list of things to do. The problem with putting together a list of things to do surfaces immediately. 

Gotta have something to put the list on. Cavemen in prehistoric times used to keep their lists of things to do on the cave walls. The people who examine cave wall paintings would have you believe these paintings are religious, symbolic, and a whole host of other words that require at least a 5th-grade education to understand and pronounce.

They are, of course, wrong. Cave paintings are lists of things to do.

Consider intrepid cavemen Og and Thak. Og paints a picture of himself and Thak killing a Great Hairy to death. That’s not a ritualistic behavior. That’s Og making notes that he needs to go to the grocery store (the grocery store in this case being the Plains where the Great Hairys live) and bring home some steak for supper. As Og and Thak did not have a frost-free fridge in the cave, going to the grocery store on a regular basis was necessary. So, the to-do list was permanent.

I considered how this would apply to me. I immediately crossed off the idea of spray painting my list of things to do on my barn wall. Items like Check Hog Trap, Write Editorial to Make Elected Officials Mad, and Remind Everyone that Taxation Is Theft would take up too much room. While these are permanent items on my to-do list, like Og and Thak hunting Great Hairys, I don’t really need a list to remind me of that. It is pretty much instinct at this point.

I remembered most lists are written on paper. Being a newspaperman, you’d think coming by paper is easy. Yes, I use about a half-ton, literally, each week, but that already has all kinds of writing on it, including the Editorial to Make Elected Officials Mad. So, I have to look for paper.

I find paper. Lots of it. Then, I started looking for paper that was not already in use with important notes. AHA!  I found a piece of paper which would work. It was an old Piggly Wiggly receipt. 

Now, something to write with it. Og and Thak used charcoal. Since Mom bought me a propane grill, I got rid of all my charcoal. A pen. My kingdom for a pen! If I had a kingdom, that is.

I put down my paper and went looking for a pen. I found several in various pieces and places. Eventually, I managed to cobble together a Frankenstein pen. It even worked, as I discovered by scribbling on my hand.

I went looking for my paper. It had disappeared. By the time I found another piece of paper, I’d forgotten what I wanted to put on my list of things to do.