To-do list making me really stressed!

[rachel8901]

I started a to-do list last night, writing down lots of little things that don't need to be done but it would be nice if they were - things like getting a lovely skirt altered so that it actually fits; weeding the patio so it doesn't look so scruffy; sorting through my DS's old baby clothes to give some to charity and free up some space in his room.

The problem is, the list amounts to about 50-60 of these little things and now I've written it all down, I'm feeling really stressed and like I'll never get to the bottom of it!

Has anyone got any tips for how to tackle this? Or should I just rip it up and forget it ever existed?

Organise the list into ' soon/later/might never happen'

Start with things that don't rely on other things being done first

Ditch any jobs where the pay off is not worth the time investment

Take a couple of days off when ds is in childcare to tackle it

As you complete each item, instead of deleting it, move it to a new section labelled "done" so you can see how much you did

I sorted my mammoth to do list into ‘easy/medium/hard/very hard’ columns and would choose chores to tick off from various columns. That way if I’d ‘only’ done one hard then I would still feel proud because the achievement was more weighted than lots of easys. (If that makes sense?)

A couple of things I learned from the the Organised Time Technique book written by the TOMM woman was that:

1. Your to do list will never end so don't expect it to or get disheartened by this.

1. There are 3 types of people, those who take on too much, those who faff around and waste time, and another type that I can't remember, maybe perfectionists, so it can help to identify which category you fall into so you can then reduce what you do, stop wasting time, or practice 'good enough not perfect'.

Then do broadly what @MotherOfCrocodiles suggests in that organise the list, ditch anything unimportant (think 'what will happen if I don't do it' and if there aren't any significant consequences don't do it) and then try and do what you can, along with fitting little jobs in spare chunks of time, eg make your phone calls or answer emails while waiting for DC to do activities or whatever.

Also delegate and make sure you fit in things that are important to you, not just things that mainly benefit the house, child or partner.

I tackled the front garden this afternoon so that's one thing ticked off. It took almost three hours of work though, which was far more than I was expecting. I wish I could take a month's leave and just work through it all! On the other hand this is very true IME:

1. Your to do list will never end so don't expect it to or get disheartened by this.

If it's all just little things that don't need to be done, but would be nice if you have the time, then in my mind it's not a to do list, it's a project menu. Whenever you have the time, you can pick something off the list, but you never have to do the whole lot if you don't want to.

If I have been avoiding jobs for a few months then suddenly I get the urge to tick them off I usually put the jobs down listed under areas eg main bedroom, front garden, attic, dd bedroom and under each area break it down into 5 min jobs, few hour jobs and day jobs. It pays to be honest with timings. Its very tempting to put wash skirting boards in bedroom under couple hours section but actually its a day job if you have lots of furniture against the walls (and because you know you have to get those dust bunnies out from under the moved furniture).

I have a long ongoing to-do list as well. It makes me feel better to have it all in one place rather than floating in my head. I have it split into sections - house, social, to buy etc.

I add bits and pieces as they occur to me then at the weekend I go through it and pick a few things to do over the weekend and make a separate shortlist. I rarely finish the shortlist but at least something gets done - without a list I don't think I'd have the focus to do anything much at all unless it was staring me in the face.