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I like knowing about people’s to-do lists. What’s on them (Separate lists for separate spheres of life? One giant list?), where they keep them (App? Pad of paper?), how they mark things as complete (Check mark? Cross-out? Highlight?), and if they save them. If they even have them.
Mine is kept in my Notes app on my phone. I make a weekly to-do list, broken down by day, so I have the whole week at a glance, and then I delete it at week’s end. It has everything on there: work, workouts, social engagements, appointments. The dopamine hit of tapping the bubble and making the little check mark appear is real. I absolutely add things I have already done so I can check them off.
I have other to-do lists, of course — such as the larger, overwhelming Home To-Do List that isn’t actually written down anywhere, is never-ending, and is just always there in the background. That list has things like “recaulk bathtub” on it, so it’s really more of a Should-Do List or, more accurately, Things I Have No Intention of Ever Doing List. Own a home, they said!
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Over the weekend, I made a different kind of list.
Since May Long is the unofficial start of summer, I started thinking about how I’d like to spend mine.
I’ve written before about how summer can be a real site of stress for me; when you live somewhere where summer is short, there tends to be a lot of pressure placed on it. I’m already panicking that I haven’t “smelled enough lilacs,” a normal thing normal people worry about. And owing to my dog’s diabetes diagnosis last summer and embarking upon the science project that is figuring blood sugar levels on a lil’ guy who can’t tell you how he’s feeling, I feel like I didn’t really do anything last summer. (I’m pleased to report he’s stable these days and doing really well.)
So I made a Fun List. I was about to call it a To-Fun list, but that’s a little Live Laugh Love for me. It’s very attainable. I want to spend more time in my backyard. I want to go to a basketball game. I want to ride my bike more. I want to go swimming in the lake. I want to hang out on patios. I want to eat a hot dog. You know, things like that. Not too many things.
Keeping to-do list items attainable? Hot dog! (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)
Because what I don’t want is for this to become an overwhelming exercise in all-or-nothing thinking, so “ride bike every day” is not a good goal for me. I also wrote down “become Sea Bears fan” which implies a certain level of dedication. Like, go see a game first, babe.
Making a list might be adding a layer of overthinking to the whole enterprise, but sometimes I find having a menu to choose an activity from actually prevents me from just doing nothing.
How are you spending your summer? Do you feel pressure around “making the most” of the season?
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