To Dos - despairs vs. regrets

Today on a walk, I had a little despair. It was current and so I wouldn't call it a regret. Most regrets seem to be associated with something that you wish you did in the past. My little despair came from a current frustration that may create future regret - the endless inspiration of adding to the to do list and never quite finishing it because I keep adding to it.

I guess this could fit into the category of "so many ideas - so little time" or more realistic - "so many ideas - so little energy."

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. the other morning because there were too many to dos scrolling through my head and I couldn't just stop them. Ugh! It would be great if I were producing amazing things from all of these inspirations and lists, but I feel like I'm in constant failure mode. The interesting thing is that about 70% of the to dos are ideas I'm generating and turning into action items. The rest are actually from other people. Part of me calls this proactive behavior and the other part of me is wondering if this is ADD on turbo charge.

Luckily, I've learned a trick or two that I need to apply on a daily basis. I'm listing two below and only two! Otherwise, it will turn into a long and unwieldy list of expectations for myself.

1 - Sticky note with three items - putting three or four must do items on a sticky (Post-It) note each morning and striving just to accomplish those three things. And, being ok if one or two of them are really simple (email so and so or take out the trash). This approach is such a relief and helps deal with adjusting internal expectations.

2 - Decide on a "stop doing" list - the book called Good to Great talks about creating a stop doing list. Take things off that are a waste of your time or don't fit in to your overall goals. Time is important, what will we not do with it? I like this idea.

Tonight I feel good. Not only did I do a little work, take a little walk, watch a little movie, participate on a little panel, but ...I also blogged about every major idea I thought of on the walk.

Now, tomorrow I'm just expecting to 1.) work for 2-3 hours 2.) take a walk and 3.) hmmmm. take a little break from the To Do list and the associated little despairs.