lists

-laundry
-blogs
-go to Ghandi movie in MUB
-read for chemistry
-start math homework

There, that's my to-do list from today. I don't make a list every day, but I find myself writing these lists more often in college than I ever did before. That doesn't mean I get more things done, no way, but it helps me organize all the little miscellaneous things I would like to get done.
Lists are a funny way of expressing future actions. They're usually just meant for our own self to read, to jog our memory when we're stuck in the dairy aisle at the grocery store trying to remember what it was we needed to pick up, or to record baby names that we like for that special time twenty years into our future when the names just might come in handy.

Some lists are extremely brief, just one word bullets scribbled onto the back of a receipt. Others are so detailed they could be an itinerary to a cross-country trip, complete with deadlines and times of the day.
Sometimes I find myself only including items on the list that I know I will eventually complete. Is it because I'm avoiding those harder tasks, pushing them back into my head until the last possible moment? Or do I just like that satisfying feeling when you get to cross off an item on your list, with a little check mark or a thorough scribbling job.
But other times it can be so therapeutic to create to-do lists where most of the items on the list are so far into the future of your life that who knows if you'll ever get around to them or not. I think it's time for me to make a new list of what I want to do in my life before I die, though...my last one was a few years ago. I've been reminded of this exciting day-dreaming exercise by the commercial for the movie "The Bucket List" in which the main characters set off on a journey to complete the activities on their 'bucket lists' (things to do before they kick the bucket). And here's a great list of over a hundred things one person wants to accomplish in his lifetime: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T5PZRqodhzc/RziDgjvSKDI/AAAAAAAAAL
g/aAv9gXS4NNo/s1600-h/zaak+list_sm.jpg

Lists are a great way to organize our days and many things that need to be done...but they're also a fun way to brainstorm for our future and think of all the people and places we want to see in the world!