April 2, 2009

Making the list

I am one of those people who needs to make a list for most things… even if it has just one item. It makes me feel organized and like I’ve thought things through. Even when I used to chart out my study schedules back in my student days (oh wait a minute, I am still there!)… I religiously made out plans to the minute hoping somewhere that I vaguely followed it. More often than not I would end up having spent more time making the schedule than sticking to it. And when I start making a list and have only one item, I usually add more things to it, whether they were entirely relevant or not. It makes me feel like I have an agenda. Very weird… but I know others who do it! Besides, having more than one thing to do promotes the need to complete at least one of the tasks enlisted. Indeed when I used to work for CTS, I used to have my own white board space on which everyday I would neatly enlist my “Tasks for the day”. As the day wore on, the guilt of not having completed any would slowly take over and I would work really hard to complete at least one major ‘bullet point’ because I took (and still take) extreme happiness in adding a check-mark to an action item once completed. That’s what seals the accomplishment, for me. My own acknowledgment of a job well-done (which I don’t give myself unless it’s truly done to the best of my satisfaction). And well, personally I need these silly boosts to elevate me to do the next item on the list (usually in the order of priority) and as the saying goes – If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Whatever works, works.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

We must've been related in some janam, lol, atleast with respect to our way of getting things done. I schedule things exactly the way you described and yeah totally identify with the whole vicious cycle of feeling guilty for not completing things and then self loathing jumps in to promote express action on my behalf :D Like you said i've no intentions of fixing my scheduling habit but sure would love to improve on following through more promptly!!

Jaya said...

Gitanjali -> Yeah, glad you identify with my weird troubles :P. Thanks for visiting and commenting n kee coming back!

Unknown said...

Very fun to read your blog - PERFECT English ^_^

I am at VungTau now and I'll find a job for the next year (luna calendar).

Best wishes for you and S

Jaya said...

Giap-> Thanks for visiting my blog!!! Haha. I hope you are doing well in vietnam. I get updates from Kim very often. Best wishes to your family there :)

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