Making lists
Dad made lists. Lots of them. I have Emacs org mode.
Making lists is part of the story I tell myself about how I’m working on the right things and getting them done.
Dad was an incurable list maker. He had to-do lists from Mom. He wrote detailed instructions (a list) of how to set up the camper. He posted lists of the date that each of my brothers and me would start paying for their own gas for the car and the milage rate. When he used computers he decided to save everything on USB drives. There was (is) a list indexing those USB drives. There were multiple phone lists updated regularly. There were (are) song lists in the harmonica case.
I have Emacs Org Mode (“Your life in plain text”), the penultimate list making software.
The lists I make on computers bear only tangential relationship to what I do. They are never done. In fact, computers make it all to easy to make lists of more things than I could every do. So, why?
The fantasy is that when I make lists, they are organized, complete, logical, right, drive all that I do (and don’t do) and that I’m more effective, accomplish more and am happier as a result. Or maybe I just need the illusion of order.
The reality is, I do what I do. I am time bounded. Lists grow to infinity. Lists are there more to make me feel good than to drive actual behavior, so that I can tell myself (and others) that I am ORGanized. Lists are there for psychological reasons. They are there because I like making lists. It’s enjoyment of the process and the illusions about what they help me accomplish, not, for the most part, because I get more done (but I think I do…no, really….)
True, it is better to have a plan than no plan. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Got it. But, in reality, lists are part of the story I tell myself about how I’m working on the right things and getting them done.
Now,
M-x org-agenda
what am I doing today? …
#46 of #100DaysToOffload take 2.1, https://100daystooffload.com/