WRITING | CREATIVITY | MINDFULNESS
Of Making Many Lists, There is No End?
Confessions from a recovering idea-hoarder and list-maker.
I’m a recovering idea-hoarder and list-maker.
I guess you could say it’s in my genes. My Grandma Fisher was a hoarder. Widowed at 44 years old in 1952, she became the bread-winner for my Mom and Uncle. Grandma taught elementary school a mile down the road from her house for the next 22 years.
Her students loved her. I remember every Halloween she would get dozens of trick-or-treaters. At first, they were her former students. Then it was the children of her students. They kept visiting even after she retired.
So how does that make her a hoarder? After Grandma passed away, my Mom and Uncle discovered boxes of student papers in her house!
She never threw anything away. Why did she keep all of that stuff? No one knows!
Whether you call it a blessing or a curse, my mind is inundated with ideas. I don’t know why. Ideas pop into my head all of the time. And I’ve gotten really good at finding ways to capture those ideas.
I have discovered unless I lasso the thought immediately, it will disappear and unlikely to reappear again. First, it was pen to paper, with endless scraps here and there. Then it got sophisticated with apps and mindmaps.
Regardless of the method, I found myself with endless lists of ideas. The trouble was I thought this was making me productive. Hardly!
Rather than implementing my ideas, I was busy capturing and collecting more and more and more.
Don’t get me wrong, when properly used, lists are awesome. But they’re also meaningless if they are never acted on.
What does a recovering idea-hoarder and list-maker do? The answer is really quite simple. DO!
I’ll close this story with a Daily Doable in the form of, what else? A list of course!
- Read your list
- Pick ONE thing to do
- Do it!
- Ignore the rest until the one thing is done
Before I go, can I send you something? I’m Recovering Idea Hoarder and List Maker, Tim Maudlin. One of the tools I use to organize my ideas is the ACRONYM template. Details below.
Get your complimentary template by filling out the form below.
This story was originally published on my site at DoWhatYouCanNow.com You can reach me there or email tim@DoWhatYouCanNow.com
