Creating a Saner To-Do List

Since I became single last June, I decided to have a word of the month that I’d want to focus on and actively embody. One month it was strong (June) another month fearless (July) and another example of a word I had was filter (October). Anyway this month has been all about balance! For me one of the things I wanted to focus on was creating more of a work-life balance, mental balance, health balance (yes it is okay for me to eat 2 chocolate squares instead of one!), etc. Needless to say things are slowly but surely becoming more even keeled in life, even my friends and colleagues complement me on my “balanced lifestyle” so I guess I am doing something right, right?

Well the first thing that I did was look over my daily to-do list and try to create a saner one. Now if you don’t know this about me already, it can be hard for me to let things go but to create a realistic plan I had to honestly ask myself “what can I actually do in a day or rather how little can I do without cheating” as Julie Morgenstern, author of Never Check E-mail in the Morning states.

 So my typical to-do list probably looks like this:

Things I decided to cut or change from my ridiculous to-do list:

-    Cut: My brother is perfectly capable of remembering on his own to take care of this task but if he chooses not to, then I can’t make it my problem. It’s not my job to compensate for other’s deficits.

-       Change: A lot of things that ended up on my to-do lists were driven by worry. Looking for ways to automate tasks that seem to keep popping up will eliminate so much stress for me. In this case, I signed up for automatic bill pay.

-       Cut: Unless it’s going to be something that I need to do at this moment then I can move it to a day when I have more time, such as the weekend.

My final to-do list looks more like this:

-       A more balanced to-do list includes:

   -Connecting with at least one friend. Maintaining relationships are extremely important to me,  have me feeling connected, and energized.

-  -Registering for automatic bill pay is great because my bank e-mail’s me when my payment is about to be sent out so that’ll erase the need for checking and re-checking my budget.

-  -Leaving some time for an unexpected emergency gives me time to cushion or accommodate the unexpected.

-  -Doing something for myself especially something physical everyday helps me stay even keeled. So even if it’s squeezing 30 minutes with my mat and I then it helps me perpetuate my happiness

   -This is super important because putting off something that could cost me money in the long run is no bueno. So taking care of tasks like these are super important!