Some people are listmakers. I am not. I want to be, but I start a list and lose it. Every week I make list after lost list of items that we need from the grocery. By the time I actually get to the grocery, I have compiled at least four lists and when I get into the grocery store, I inevitably discover that I have none of them with me. Same thing with Christmas lists and school supply lists. I make them, I lose them.
There is, however, one list that I go back to again and again. The TTASMO, short for things-that-are-stressing-me-out. The TTASMO has saved my sanity time and time again.
This isn't a list of little things that need to be done around the house or things that need to be picked up or phone calls that need to be made. That's just life stuff. UNLESS they are stressing you out (hence the name). If a situation or chore has the power to wake you up in the middle of the night, it may indeed be considered a ttasmo.
I like the ttasmo because once I identify an item as a ttasmo, it doesn't matter if I lose the list. (Not 'if' I lose the list, 'when' I lose the list)
I got up this morning with a four item ttasmo. Things were piling up in my mind and I needed to check them off. And by noon I had two items off the ttasmo. The other two I am procrastinating because they are tougher and I am a wuss about tough things. I am also a great procrastinator, but ttasmo keeps me in line.
I have organized friends and organized family. I have friends who have school schedules written out to the minute. I have family who are absolutely disgusted at my lack of organization and structure. And then there's me with a goal like 'make bed'.
The ttasmo though. That puts me right up there with the organized folk, I think.
3 comments:
I remember when Jon first came on staff with VWS and I saw his TTASMO list. I asked what it was and once I understood, I stole it.
I wrote my own short list as such:
TTASMO:
* You
-------------------------
It really is a great list.
YOU wrote that??? I thought it was Matt! We still have that.
There are probably a lot of stories about when you and Jon first met. One in particular comes to mind. I love and still laugh hysterically about my first encounter with you.
I lose lists too. That is why it was in my folder.
List making, for me, is a way of procrastinating. When I am really stressed out, I have been known to make lists to make lists. Yes, my to-do list will atually tell me to make another kind of list.
They don't work and I never look much at them after I make them. I am hopelessly right brained and list making is my attempt at being functional.
I have gotten better lately though. It's because I started adding color to my lists, I think. They have to be pretty.
Rachel
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