For the recent and problematic example, I have a terribly messy bunch of newspaper clippings, internet printouts, and magazine pages in the cabinet above the kitchen phone, all containing recipes. I hauled them all down to the kitchen counter, on the theory that I should go through them and put the ones I want to keep on recipe cards where they can be stored in a compact and organized fashion.
It turns out that possibly mid-December is not the most reasonable time for me to perform this chore or other similarly time-intensive and time-insensitive chores! I know, I'm as surprised as you are. So while I hate to shove this stuff back into the cabinet where it will get ignored for who knows how long, up it goes, to drive me crazy later. Ah! I have added it to my to-do list for the week of January 14-20. Part of the function of my to-do list is to tell me what I need to remember to do, but the rest -- and this may be the lion's share -- is to comfort me that I don't have to do everything right now and that I don't have to do everything the minute it occurs to me. Some of it is a "to do some other time" list, and for me, that's important.
Unfortunately, a lot of it is a "to do right now" list. So. Off I go.
