July 22

Making lists usually helps me to be more organized. Today, instead of being a tool to create and foster order, my lists became a force of entropy.

I started off the day with two lists: one a punch list for my upcoming vacation to Daytona Beach, the second a more general to-do list for today. By the time I was done, I had four lists and various printouts scattered all over my desk.

In order to work out what to do and where to do it, I needed to make a vacation budget. But when I went into my budget to double-check my figures and balance my checkbook, there was a discrepancy. My planning for this trip hinges on my having money; effective planning requires I know how much money I've got.

Inevitably, my lists began to overlap. To-dos for today matched stuff on the Daytona list. Unfortunately, while some items were redundant, other's were not. I was spending more time looking at lists than accomplishing tasks by the time it was over.

By the time I had two highlighters out to check stuff, I knew it was time to step back and start over. It was the right decision. While I'm only a little closer to being done with my to-dos today, I'm a lot closer to being able to make progress. And small progress is better than none.

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