My to-do list has 165 items on it. 
And that doesn’t count the 28 under a sub-heading (one day I got organized; the 165 things were DISorganized days.)
And that doesn’t count the to-do list on my monitor desktop, the to-do list on a yellow legal pad on my real desktop, nor the 3 calendars I maintain.
I can only thank the electronic gods that I do not have the capacity to add things to my to-do lists from a phone, and I feel blessed that the stickies on my car’s dashboard fade out after a few days in the Florida sunshine.
That’s sick.
I mean, my to-do lists aren’t simple things like
- Pick up milk
- Bank deposit
- Manicure Wed. 3pm
No, my lists are more like
- Figure out why I have to quintuple-click to get to a web site on this @#%& machine
- Figure out stop-motion so I can do it half as good as my 13-year-old niece so I can send one back at her.
- Reorganize the entire 12,000 sq ft NFP consignment shop I volunteer at. Even though they don’t see the need for it. I do.
- Solve the mysteries of the universe before next Saturday
You know that old sign,Ā “I can’t die yet; I have too much to do!”?
Well, guess what. I am hereby defying death by erasing at least 90% of what’s on all those lists. 
I’m thinkin’ the world will be a better place for it. Or at least MY world will be.
What’s on YOUR to-do lists that you can erase?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Very well said Dwight! That’s the way to put a positve spin on it š
The tyranny comes from believing that you have to do all the things on the To Do list. One helpful suggestion is to have a special list or category that is titled “Maybe/Someday” and use that for things that in the moment seem really cool to do, but will quickly drop to a low priority, especially in the face of essential To Do items. This way the cool ideas get out of your head and stop bothering you and they live on their own list, so they don’t inflate the important To Do list and make that seem hopeless.
And don’t expect to ever have zero items on your To Do list. Think of it more as a menu of activities that you can choose from when you find yourself thinking, “What should I do next?”
Love my To Do Lists!!
Once I write it down I can relax and stop “remembering” it in the back of my head.
My list is out if control as my open date looms closer! My new shoppe, It’s So You Boutique, opens Aug 3 but of course I am accepting consignments now. I agree with Alexa, I have to capture the thought when it pops in or it could be gone forever. I have now started carrying a tiny note pad with me to add to and scratch off items from the never ending list!!!
You’re right…you’re defying death. I have an anxiety attack UNTIL I write it down! I fear forgetting that thought as it crosses my brain (especially now at 59 as of June 29). It WILL disappear (at least for a while) if I DON’T write it down. Does this mean I’m doomed by the “tyranny of lists”? Can’t think of a darned thing to erase………….
Tyranny is exactly right. That’s why I only write things on my ‘to do’ list that I’ve already done and can cross off.