It all starts with a list....

I kept seeing posts all over social media of how people were bored during the pandemic. I didn't understand that. Being a long standing member of the social butterfly family, you'd think the staying put, don't socialize thing would drive me nuts. But I found myself with more than enough to do. I had a "I'll get to that someday" list. But the pandemic quickly taught me that even my To Do List needed revising. My intuition simply told me - make use of this time, be productive. March and April were easy months to keep busy as the weather wasn't always pushing me outside in Boston. But I needed a routine and a checklist. I wanted to come out on the other end of this feeling that I had accomlished something other than laundry and cooking. Not necessarily something new, just SOMETHING other than watching everything on Netflix.

I made a list of everything I mentally knew I wanted to get to but had never committed to paper. Then I drew a line and made a second list right underneath it. This was my over achiever section. If I finished everything above, what else did I want to do that I never thought I would get to? After all, none of us knew how long this pandemic was going to last. At the time, I was under the impression that June 2020 would be the end of it, tops. We all know I was way off. And the over achiever section kept growing, as did the timeline for the pandemic. I kept the list on top of our desk, and crossed off every item once is was accomplished, like any good list maker does. I decided to transfer that list to a notebook, yes even the completed items at first. This was genius. Being able to track my progress as well as my thought process made for a more synergistic list. Ok, yes I am an organized person anyway. But, this was a way to change the game for me. It raised the bar to ensure I did more. For instance, I needed to finish writing my second children's book. The book was mostly written, and a contract for my illustrator was done but we were both dragging our feet. My approach to my book, and my TO DO LIST quickly changed. How so you ask?

A To Do List is often comprised of simple things like: 1. Laundry 2. Clean Bathroom 3. Make eggplant meatballs 4. Organize closet 5. Send emails. I might begin my day starting laundry and while the wash cycle is doing its thing, I start on the closet. I begin to toss things into piles, find a few things to donate, a few things to sell, and happily find myself with more room in my closet as well as more organization when the phone rings. I answer it and get side tracked from the closet while placing the wet clothes into the dryer and putting the items out for the meatballs while talking on the phone. The call stretches into an hour, its close to dinner time, and I go straight to the cooking, leaving my almost done closet there wondering where I went, and the clothes in the dryer awaiting their at minimum second go around to be fluffed up before being folded. Day 2, I finally cross off laundry (the dryer went around three times total), meatballs, and realize I have to go back to the closet to finish cleaning out the shoe area and then it will be done. As a side note, notice how the emails was number five? That's because its the most daunting task. However, there's nothing special about that list, its boring and sets a very low bar. But Covid changed it all. I now call that line the C-line instead of a second To Do List. I also found that when too many crossouts happened, or too many add ons occurred, instead of rewriting it, I simply flipped over to another page in my notebook and wrote the updated list there. This way, I could flip back and see what I had accomplished, and if my note or task was too brief, I could look back to where it came from and understand my thought process. I found this to be much more productive and it helped me organize my thoughts. Goodness knows we all had a lot of them in this time of Covid.

Under that line, I wrote: Finish and publish childrens book. Under that I wrote: contact illustrator, check on timeline. I had to consider that my illustrator might have schedule changes due to covid and had a personal schedule not to mention the effect that Covid was having on all of us. Everyone handles stress differently, and I needed to take that into consideration for me as well as for her. I came up with a more flexible timeline, for both of us. I gave her more room to be creative while also establishing guidelines. She in turn sent me back ideas and an understanding of what I wanted. We literally revised the contract, together, three times. Maybe it was four? Point is, we understood each other, and also respected one anothers needs. In the meantime, I was crossing off my Covid To Do List at a pace that was reasonable, and it was more than just laundry!

My second children's book was published November 25, 2020 - had Covid not happened, it might still be in my pending file. To Do Lists are not a new thing. But perhaps being more honest with myself and my time management helped me set realistic goals. Drawing that line and realizing the things that were beneath that line were my "extra credit" tasks gave me something to shoot for. With all this time on my hands, writing out what I wished I had the time to do - but didn't think I would get to it - seemed logical. I didn't really think I would get to it all. But I soon realized that as I crossed off placing items for sale on Etsy, or cleaning out the filing cabinet at last left me with a feeling of accomplishment instead of ever increasing covid-anxiety. By the time May rolled around, and flowers needed to be planted on our patio, which was a welcome reprieve to sitting inside the office and writing and editing my childrens book, I literally felt like I worked for myself and kept changing my job description.

Next on the list was for my edited childrens book to be emailed to five friends for their immediate objective review. Out of the blue, a coworker who was furloughed contacted me. She offered her editing services. As a professional editor on the side, she had the time to do this for me. What? Of course! I contacted my friends who received an emailed copy and said I needed their comments sooner. I crossed that part off my extra credits section, and googled what to pay an editor. I sent my completed book over to her, as the illustrations for it started to come in. I was a well oiled machine and I know its because of the new To Do List process I incorporated. Every day, I made sure I crossed off at the minimum, one NEW thing. Now the list comprised of over achieving items, and over over achieving items. My system was simple, and no real big secret or idea. We were all, in one way or another, our own corporation during covid, and some of us still are and always will be. The point is, make a list, draw a line, and make a second list of items you don't think you'll get to. Cross something off once a day and stick to it. Being productive is easy when you have a plan.