Things to do today.
1. Write column!
Is it wrong that I love making lists? Is it indicative of some kind of compulsive demon lurking within me? Lists are a perfectly natural way of attempting to create a semblance of order in an anarchic world, right? Is it wrong to want to say to the world "yes, I am a list-maker, do you have a problem with that?" I make lists on, pretty much, a daily basis. I like being able to see the things I hope to achieve today written down, in vaguely the order in which I hope to achieve them. Generally I like to put the big-ticket items at the top of the list - the stuff that absolute needs to be done to keep everything moving in the right direction. Down near the bottom of the list is the more mundane stuff, the household chores that sort of need doing but our continued existence on the planet won't be in jeopardy if they don't get done. I also like to throw in a few things I absolutely know I will get done because they either take little or no effort to complete or they are already scheduled from a previous list.
This last category, list-fodder I suppose you could call it, is important in a list because the value of the list is primarily determined by crossing things off it. The tiny little bit of pleasure, that sense of accomplishment, in crossing something off your list, is what lists exist for. Crossing off the things at the top of the list is, obviously, more satisfying, but you get to the point in your day when crossing anything off that list is a buzz, a reward you can give yourself.
Okay, when I say "your day" and "yourself" I actually mean me, because the craving of this buzz is only the beginning of my list-making affliction. We all know making a list is a perfectly normal thing to do, people do it every day. But is it normal, I ask you, to make a list and then to later add things you've just done that weren't on that list, to the list, just for the satisfaction of then immediately crossing them out? Sure, on one level this is simply correcting an oversight when making the original list; but on another level this is surely not normal behaviour.