productivity: fascinating

I freely admit it: I am a planner. It is indeed part of my DNA, and it has also become more than necessary. Working full-time with an active kiddo as part of a large blended family plus a couple of miles of running every week.. well a good deal of every minute of my days is planned. 


I make lists left and right. Lists calm me. I'll rewrite a list over again if it has scratch outs, or Heaven Forbid is a grocery list and does NOT match the order of aisles in the store. And when I say re-write, I do mean write.  By hand, with a pen. I love my iPhone and iPad and all my gadgets and apps and such. But my lists, those I write.  I don't have a photographic memory (but my that would be handy), but I DO remember actually writing something by hand.. so if by chance I have flitted off to the store without the sacred list, I can generally picture it in my head and manage to get most of the things on it. 

Usually by Thursday morning of each week, I have made a list of what we need to get done on the weekend. In January I bought a pink notebook; not full size but bigger than pocket size. It has become my LIFE.  I write everything in it, and it is always with me. And it has made remembering what needs to be done so much easier! 


Anyway. Last Thursday I didn't make a list. Work had been busy, and I knew Nana and Grampie were on their way to town.  I figured we'd kind of just see what they were doing and work around them. And you know what? We got so much crap done that it shocked both me and Bill.  

In a 48 hour period we managed to:

• have people in for dinner two nights in a row; one night had a new recipe and the second night I made homemade Spaghetti Sauce
• make goodies to bring to Josh and Sarah's pool party on Sunday
• plant a tree, dig up two flowers/plants that didn't make it
• clean the garage
• clean out &organize two junk drawers in the kitchen
• put up bars on the screen door (so Gracie won't head butt the screen out when she goes beserk at the sight of a squirrel..)
• write half of our wedding thank you notes
• have a 5year old Sleepover with Sydney
• do my nails, Eileen's nails, and Edie's nails
• roughly 5 loads of laundry done
• spend two afternoons at a pool; one of which I managed to read a good chunk of my book
• two super hard workouts for me 
• all that and we had fun too!

(See, another list!)

So. Now comes the part where you'll assume that, since we did so much withOUT a list.. that maybe I'll stop making them.  BWAHAHAHA. Not a chance in hell. 

See, even if we don't DO everything on a list, I still have a mental and written note that at some point we'll get to it. 

You know what?  I even keep a running list of blog topics....