02 April 2009

Little Miss Organised

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I cannot function without lists. I have to write them for just about everything and, if I have too many lists, I make a list of lists or stick post-it notes on things as reminders. I suppose it comes from my days in the Civil Service where I had to be extremely organised in my job. I like law and order in my life. I cannot stand chaos. I can usually put my finger on anything that is needed from a receipt for something purchased the day before to a champagne cork kept from our wedding 33 years ago. I know where to find the list of vaccinations Kay has had throughout her life or the parking fine Greg got seven years ago.

By way of contrast, Greg is totally disorganised and a great procrastinator. He cannot find the lighter he used to light a cigarette five minutes ago and yesterday he mislaid his cheque book which resulted in him turning the house upside down and inside out. He even accused me of having snatched it to annoy him, but then hours later he found it in the back pocket of some jeans he was wearing at the weekend. Each day he will say he is going to do a particular repair job (say, weather-proofing the fence). For every dry day, he will make all manner of excuses or be rapt in some television programme and end up not doing the job. He then waits for a day when it is pouring with rain and then says he was definitely going to do it that day but now of course it is too wet (and he says in a grave tone
that it will take quite a few days for the fence to dry out so there's no point doing it for at least another two weeks!!) He will spend all day looking out at the sunny weather saying HE will walk the dog for a change, but when by 3pm he hasn't gone out, it seems he is waiting for the weather forecast on TV. I am often so bold as to comment that he only needs to look out the window, but he needs to hear it from the professionals! Of course by the time he sees the weather forecast, it has clouded over and started to rain and he then says it is too wet to go out with the dog!! It's the same pattern every time and of course nothing ever gets done. Then he forgets these chores need doing altogether and I have to make a list to remind him about them!

If I have a pile of different jobs - some manual (such as repairing clothes, housework, washing, ironing or gardening), some requiring mental input (such as bills/letters etc) or some requiring special action (eg. booking train tickets North or researching something before I make a decision etc), I write all the things I need to do in a list. That way I have a handy overview of what needs doing and the amount of effort I need to put in. Sometimes, if the list is long, I will put a day of the week against the item so that the load is evenly distributed on each day. There is nothing nicer than making a list and getting immense satisfaction as the items are gradually ticked off and I have completed action on the last remaining one. It also makes sure that things get done - in time.

Is that sad, or what?

Not one of my lists - just a Google image!!

17 comments:

Flowerpot said...

I've alwys had lots of lists as I have a brain like a seive, and I agree it's very satisfying ticking off chores! And Himself is terrible - he'll wander round saying, 'What have you done with my glasses, when they're on his head!

Saz said...

birds of a feather...I love my lists..

see my post, oh you probably already have!

http://fatfrumpyandfifty.blogspot.com/2008/10/ive-got-to-write-it-down.html

nuttycow said...

I love lists.

*looks at her list*

Oh alright, I'll stop reading blogs now and start doing some work!

Nota Bene said...

Lists are like a prison to my need for freedom to express myself. Or am I just slovenly, disorganised and lazy

Kit Courteney said...

Sad???

NO!!!!!!!!!!!

I *AM* you!

My nickname is Little Miss Organised. I keep everything safe and know exactly where to find it 12 years later while Mr KC plonks something down and then blames ME for moving whatever it is. Drives me nuts. How can he live like that?

I even have a list of lists if I have several...and use days of the week to evenly distribute the things 'to do'. I love my lists. It's how I function.

Lists rock!

aims said...

ummmm- do you have blogging on your list? :0)

DD's Diary said...

I always forget to write my list! How sad is that?

DogLover said...

Oh, the joy of finally throwing away the list! All those items and all the time the list has been there!

What a load off one's mind!

Tomorrow I'll start another list - I'll try to remember all the items from the last one, but write them SMALLER so that it seems shorter.

When that's been done, I'll have a rest.

And perhaps I'll change my name to Greg ...

La Framéricaine said...

I had a Persian husband once and years after our divorce, he called me and told me that his eldest brother had died in an automobile accident in Tehran, leaving behind a widow and three children.

He further explained that he needed to go from San Jose, California to Tehran to help his family but that in order to be allowed to do so he had to prove to the Iranian Embassy in Washington, DC that he was not a draft deserter but rather a student who had married an American and stayed in the US for that reason.

He asked me if I could provide him with a copy of our marriage license and divorce decree. I asked him his if he had a fax. I went to a cupboard, took out the docs in question, faxed them, and received a call back shortly thereafter during which my sweet ex-husband said to me, "You are the only person I know who could fax me 20 year old documents in five minutes!"

Thus, my dear organized friend, we are soul sisters, birds-of-a-feather who must stick together.

Additionally, I would like to say that in line with Henry Alexander Murray's "Theory of Psychogenic Needs" as represented by Dr. Edwin Shneidman in "The Suicidal Mind", I know very well that if my need for order were ever to be seriously thwarted, I could be driven to suicide--no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Happy accomplishing and checking off those items on your list!

Anonymous said...

How do you refrain from kicking his ar$e?


GG

Anonymous said...

*lol* So we are all in the same club here ;-) I, too, like lists of all kind, not only to-do-lists but also what to put into the suitcase when travelling or which clocks to set when summertime comes and how. And I like my lists and couldn't and wouldn't live without.

Anonymous said...

Nope. I dont think its sad. It shows you are organised and motivated.

Reasons said...

You are not sad, you are coping. Very well by the sounds of it.

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

I couldn't function without my lists Rosiero! When I have a particularly busy time ahead (like Christmas) I begin the list with "make a list" and have the satisfaction of crossing it off immediately! A x

Anonymous said...

Sad? Hope not, I'm a list fanatic!

CJ xx

Anonymous said...

Order is good. I am completely unorganised and always making promises to myself to be more organised- usually when pulling apart the house looking for something. I would say its a male thing but my wife is actually worse in some respects while way better in others.

Nechtan

ADDY said...

Thank you all. It seems we are all like minds and lists rule our lives.