To-do list, check. Timetable, check. Implementation...

I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. There are tasks to be done, so I make a list of said tasks and tick them off as they’re completed. Problem is I think I can count on one hand how many times I’ve successfully ticked off all the items on a to-do list. Now that’s not to say that all of the items on the list aren’t completed, but chances are that a good proportion of them migrate onto a more up-to-date list.

It’s the same with timetables. I love to make timetables. Especially when I was in education, although admittedly by university I had ditched the feminine/OCD highlighting and colour coordination that took up so much time during my school days. Other than actual class timetables I don’t know that I’ve ever followed any of my creations for more than a week. And yet I continue in the practice even though it seems destined to failure. Here is my most recent attempt at the art...

I was actually quite proud of this particular timetable at the time. It’s realistic (a 10am start {I’m unemployed and not a ‘morning person’}, time to check email at the start, events broken up into manageable time segments), it’s substantial enough (standard 8 hour day with the activity most likely to run-on into ‘overtime’ at the end) and if I stuck to it I knew I’d feel productive. But as always in reality it ended up more like this...

 
I get annoyed with myself when I can’t stick to a timetable and I do question whether sometimes they’re counterproductive. And then it hits me, maybe the timetable needs a little tweaking, but the fault doesn’t lay there. If I can’t stick to an infinitely reasonable and flexible timetable of my own creation, there’s really only one place to lay the blame… subprime mortgage holders.

Okay, so it’s me, I’m the problem. Is admitting you are the problem the same as admitting you have a problem? I’m not sure, but I’m counting it as the first step. What’s the next step? Well that’s easy right.

 
Happy New Year.