"How Do You Do?" From my To Do List to You

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Greetings and salutations. How do you do?

I’m EH1812’s To Do List! How nice to meet you!

This is what EH1812 has to do today at work:

1. Work. EH1812 has let work pile up on her desk because she is very, very bored at her job. However, she is very, very excited to have it confirmed that in a few months she shall be given her very own office. A small office, sure, but a room of her own, and the first office she’s ever had to herself. The first office she’ll ever have to decorate. There will be wall hangings. And, if the swap meet at the Rose Bowl is kind to her, lots of old office knickknacks (rolodexes from the 50’s, etc.) to decorate her desk and filing cabinets. EH1812 gets so excited about planning for this upcoming milestone in her life as secretarial career gal, that she begins to daydream, and daydreaming leads to slacking, and slacking leads to looking up pictures of



on the Internet, rather than doing her actual work, which is, as previously mentioned, literally piling up around her as her co-workers look on in confusion. “Audra, do you have a purchase order for….”

[Audra hastily closes Slacker computer screen] Yes, yes, I have it but I haven’t typed it yet, I’ve been so busy [not being busy at all].

Ah, but my own office! I’ll be so much BETTER in my own office!

Heh.

This is what EH1812 has to do today after work:

1. Reorganize and clean her bedroom. This is what EH1812 had to do on her to do list last weekend, the week before, the weekend before that, the weeks and weekends that proceeded that, all the way back prior to Christmas. EH1812 needs someone to remind her what a vacuum cleaner looks like it’s been so long since she’s used one.

2. Clean out laptop computer and ready it for a professional cleaning, since it’s never been swiped, is years old, freezes all the time, and takes 20 minutes to load.

3. Hang up laundry. Laundry is done but is now strewn all over cat-haired carpet as if not done.

4. Clean living room and do dishes. Much like vacuum cleaner, someone may need to explain to EH1812 what a broom looks like.

5. Install newly built bookshelf in bedroom and organize books that are currently all over living room and bedroom floors.

This is what EH1812 MUST NOT DO after work today:

1. Go online.

2. Read books instead of organize them.

3. Daydream about the real possibility of renting one of the garages in her building to transform into an art studio for ONLY $50.00 a month, instead of actually making artwork in the little mini-studio that’s set up in her living room already.

4. Sit in a chair and listen to music instead of listening to music while cleaning her apartment.

5. Decide that NOW is when she most needs to finish that short story she started months ago, as this is still procrastinating even if it’s also being productive. House really MUST get clean tonight. Cats are beginning to get restless, wondering if they’ve been moved into a Filth Pit rather than the lovely 2-bedroom they were promised.

6. Will not go to video store to rent a movie to watch “after cleaning” when knows perfectly well she will come home and immediately watch the movie, deciding that house cleaning can be put off for another day, week, month, what the hell, this year is already shot to hell anyway.

This is what EH1812 MUST NOT DO for the rest of the day at work:

1. Spend anymore time here. Doing this. And not doing her work. Recommencing work in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3….do not hit refresh. Do not recheck messages. Do not sign on again for the rest of the afternoon..2….I mean it….1……SIGN OFF!

What are your To Do Lists.

Not that I'll be checking your answers until tomorrow.

Really.

I mean it.

[BarTopDancer]

Hehehee. Wonderful post EH1812! Really. And CONGRATULATIONS on your very first office!!!

This is what BTD has to do at work today:
Review data to make sure it's clean before it's released
Make sure there is sufficient information for said data to be retrieved
Figure out why we don't have a report for our SMS project (just found out about that)

This is what BTD has been doing at work today:
Dreaming about moving and the logistics of having a roommate
Thinking about all the stuff I have to do at home
Reading the LoT
Looking at photos of pretty Silverados
Thinking about how I am going to study before my quiz tonight

This is what BTD has to do at home: (everything was on the list last weekend too)
Move her desk so the new couch fits better
Clean her bathroom
Clean her kitchen
Clean her... Oh hell. Clean her entire apartment
Figure out why I can't register for my online math class that started today
Catch up on reading for my Oceanography class
Clean her fridge

This is what BTD will be doing tonight:
Go to school
Go home
Play on LoT
Sleep

This is what BTD should not be doing after work until said list is done
Go online. Period.
Post on Lot. Period.
Watch TV without doing something productive.

[UvaGirl]

I'm not even going to start on work, it's too, too depressing.

Carlie's general To Do list...

Tidy up large piles of magazine that have accumulated under my side of the bed. Handy for late night reading, not so handy for vacuuming.

Download and fill out British Working Visa application form.

Track down family birth certificates to go with said form.

Work out what to do with household appliances/furniture/general belongings/2 cats if said application form is accepted and I need to move in haste to London.

Meh. It's all too much work....

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Ah, 50% caught up. Will do the remaining 50% in the morning. Things are looking up. Check list is being checked off.

Now, I trek home to CLEAN. Yes, I will clean.

[wendybeth]

Dear EH1812's To Do List,

I'd very much like to dump this slacker I've been hanging around with and move in with you. Wendy is constantly ignoring me, putting me off, and otherwise procrastinating my life away. We have so much to do, and does she listen? Today, when I reminded her of the fact that there are new life forms growing in the fridge and bathtubs with rings that rival Saturn's, do you think she listened? Nooooo, it's all "I'm going to Disneyland in July, blah blah blah...." Really, you'd think she'd won the damn Superbowl. Granted, she did do a perm on her MIL, but she was supposed to do that last week. There are so many things that need looked after- the house needs painting, car washed, carpets cleaned, checkbook balanced, taxes prepped, etc.

You seem to be a take charge, no nonsense sort of list. Will you adopt me, please?

Sincerely,
Wendy's Should Be Doing List.

[€uroMeinke]

This is €'s To Do list - dust covered coffee stained. it reads more as a plea of good intentions. Therein lie the projects long promised to be complete, the dishes that were already done by his loving spouse, the plans long canceled by other circumstances.

This list is an alternate reality, of what could have been €'s life. It shows the promise €'s life had before it was thoughtlessly squandered before the internet.

The list is €'s epitaph of failure - his tasks never completed.

[Baileykat]

This is Baileykat's To Do List...

We've since joined PA (Procrastinator's Annonymous). To Do List's are a thing of the past...now we use a Maybe It'll Get Done If I Friggin Feel Like It List. It's working well for me.

Here's what the MIGDIIFFLI List said today:

Asssuming kids are at school, get self dressed in something besides PJ's (done by 2:00)

Touch up house (vaccum, dust, mop kitchen floor) Finally done at 2:45pm

Get hubbys bday present before picking up kids at 3:00pm - Didn't do

Things that did get done:

Hung out on LoT...alot!

Took a nap with the cat

Watched Turner Classic Movies.

Watched my soaps.

Realized it was 2:00pm...Crap! Where did the day go?
Light speed shower, get dressed, run vacuum while at the same time dusting furniture, race to pick up kids, race to Mall, get present, race to take Kat to cheer practice, race to grocery store for rest of supper, race home, make special dinner for hubby's bday, make chocolate dipped strawberries instead of cake, do dishes, bathe children, put children to bed, put hubby to bed, surf LoT!

[dsnylndmom]

My TO DO List~~~Get Well

Which means, the longer it takes to finish this list the longer the next To Do list will be.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I only use To Do lists when it really comes down to it. In other words:

"These things have been needing attention for 2 months now, so you either do them or commit suicide, because you're such a fvck up."

At this moment, however, I'm shockingly caught up. But that's only because there was a possibility of us having people over for the weekend and I did the WHOLE DAMN PLACE in the course of a week. I swear, this place was nearly spotless. I'm still riding that victory and things aren't bad. Yet.

My phantom, normal, everyday to do list of the moment includes buying new tan shoelaces. Working on getting the songs on my iPod labeled correctly. Repotting a tree I got for free at the library. Odds and ends. Organize my files. You know, ex-file clerks never have organized files. Hmm, now that I think of it, they were far more organized when I was a file clerk. Hmm.

[Kevy Baby]

Kevin's to do list:

Live