I look at the week ahead, at the appointments and the obligations and even some planned fun things, at the stuff that needs doing in the spare moments, and I quail. I quake. And then I think, But wait! I have a list! And then I am mighty, and I am fierce, and on I go, because the list knows all and sees all, and what it does not know, I will tell it. And it is a million and one times easier to do things we know need doing.
My other method of getting things done is not nearly so pleasing. It is the stick to complement the list carrot. It is the crap on my desk. There is crap on my desk, the logic goes, because it drives me nuts to have crap on my desk, and therefore I will take steps to get rid of the crap on my desk, so that it will cease driving me nuts. It's not that this method doesn't work. Bills get paid extremely promptly around here, because otherwise they are on my desk, and I hate having things on my desk. But novels can't always be revised nearly so quickly as a $7 phone bill can be paid, and I'm not sure having crap on my desk isn't detrimental to that process.
So I will put it on the list and see what can be done.
