Why Your Plans to ‘Catch-Up’ Never Happen
“v shud meet ya…”
“ofc… next week?”
“Cool.. i’ll let you know”
“k…bye..”
And you never see them again.
Welcome to working adulthood.
This is the general outline of most of our relationships as adults. Apart from our partners, colleagues and sometimes family, we rarely get any quality, non-interrupted face time with another person. It is widely believed that our hectic lives and busy schedules are responsible for this. We really, really, REALLY want to meet our friends from school, and we absolutely certainly want to catch up with those guys from our old locality and we always have the best, most sincere intention of actually calling when I say we’ll call, but what with kids, chores and deadlines hurtling towards us at breakneck speed everyday, catching up with old pals is just not possible.
But there is another oft-overlooked reason for why you never seem to be able to see that friend you said you would:
The To-Do List
See, when you become an adult, you are handed a To-Do list. The list contains all the items you should be doing as an adult for the rest of your life. Suffices to say that it’s pretty long, and with every day that you are still alive, the list gets longer. Most of time the items on this list are the same as the items on every other adult’s list and they generally fall into one of two categories:
1. Make Money
2. Spend Money
Almost every item on this list is some derivative of either of these two. There’s also a third random category called ‘Feel Good’ but you usually don’t see that very often. This To-Do list is exactly the reason you didn’t make it to your school reunion. School reunions don’t fall under either of the two categories.
Fortunately though, while most adults charge through their to-do list with the enthusiasm of a herd of elephants, it is quite possible to dial it down and occasionally catwalk over it, waiting to ponder if the next item really needs to be ticked off. It is also quite possible to remove or delete a few items or add a whole new category called ‘Just Because’. (See you are not given these options when you get the list because God forbid you actually use them — but we’ll tell you — you can and you should!).
When you take charge of your life’s To-Do list, you can now choose to move out of your two-column routine and do things that fall under, “Have Fun”, “Try New”, “Get Healthy”, “Be Happy”, “Random Crazy”, “No Idea”, “WTF am I even doing?”, “Because it’s nice” and so on and so forth. Which - let’s face it -sounds, looks, sounds and actually is a lot cooler. Now with these brand new categories, catching up with pals and meeting up old and new friends can actually be an item on your to-do list. Ta-Da!
So let’s take a look at what other items you could include with this new and improved version of To-Do list:
Under Get Healthy
· Go Jogging with the elderly uncle who lives next door
· Go trekking with a weekend trekking group
· Play with the kids from your street
· Join a Yoga Class
Under Random Crazy
· Call up your high-school crush
· Gift flowers to the building watchman
· Drop in to your school-teacher’s house for a visit
Under Try New
· Sign Up and list your hobbies
· Find other people in your locality that share your interests
· Do fun activities together
See whenever you complain to people that life’s too stressful, they will tell you to screw everything and take a break. In the long-term that rarely works out. You cannot escape The List. And it is an important tool for helping you lead a productive, organized life and generally not end up a lazy bum. That said, you need to take charge of your to-do list so that it doesn’t turn you into an automated slave either. So, if you haven’t yet, pick up a pencil, and write a new one. And check out Brigge while you’re at it. Who knows what new items you may find to put on your list!
