Using a Two-Column To-Do List.

Last week I wrote about a bunch of different kinds of lists. This week, I am going to explain my To-Do List System.

[A caveat, though - please do not feel that I am in any way implying that you should be doing what I do. That would be weird. Different people are different. I find, however,  that this system works for me, and I love systems so I am going to write about it here as is my blog-given right. I would love to hear about the To-Do list systems you all use too!]

I have a number of To-Do lists around my home, my office, and my various internet accounts. I have project specific lists on binder paper in folders for those projects. I have lines piled up in the "all day" section of my google calendar. I have a post-it with prep activities for the night before a work day next to my coffeemaker. I have a list of goals for the year above my desk. I have a list of goals for the Summer nearby. All of these, however, feed into the daily To-Do list that I carry with me.

Mostly fictitious example of how I handle To-Do lists.

How I handle this daily list is based partly on:

1. my deep-seated love for physically crossing things off of lists. This means I carry an actual physical paper and pencil list because that allows me to <3 cross things off of it <3 even though it is, in some ways, less convenient than a digital/virtual list would be. An added benefit is that I find the act of writing the things down with a pencil helps reinforce my memory that you know, they should actually get done. Because I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but unfortunately

2. I will forget to do things if they are not on lists. I put "wash hair" on my to do list. I will literally forget when I washed my hair last if I do not see it crossed off on an earlier day's list.

So, those possibly shameful facts admitted, here's how I do it.

Twice a week, Wednesday evening and Sunday evening, generally, I sit down with my calendar up on my computer screen, my lists of projects and goals next to me, a picture or list of my farm share foods, and I create my plan for the next few days.

I use a lot of exclamation points.

I use a two-column stenographer's notebook (like this one, but not actually this one because I buy in bulk) that I divide into a "work" column and a "home" column for each weekday. I have a long commute, so I include what I want to get done on the train in my "work" column. As per my earlier post regarding meal planning, I write down what I plan to eat for dinner, and what I want to pack for the next day's lunch.

Weekends (theoretically) involve no separation of work and home life, so I use one column for each day.

When list items need to happen at a specific time, I put a star next to them. I like stars. I also work out travel time ahead. If I am meeting friends for a movie downtown, I use Hopstop or Google Maps to figure out how long it will take me to get there and then put my leaving time on the To-Do list. I program my phone alarms to remind me to be where I need to be when I need to be there.

Some notes:
1. I pair congenial tasks. That is, I don't just write "wash hair," but rather "wash hair and dishes" because I need to wash my hair about as often as I need to do dishes, so why not do them at the same time?
2. I don't like calculating percentages of how much of a given project is done. That's just math pretending to be efficiency. I instead make each To-Do list item something that can be completed. SO I might have an entry such as "sort 101 essays into batches of 10" and then a few entries that each read "Mark a batch of 101 essays."
3. I'm lying about some stuff for clarity. I NEVER write "sort 101 essays into batches of 10" or "Mark a batch of 101 essays." I write things like "SORT 101" and "MARK BATCH 101." Full disclosure; etc.

EDIT: A wonderful two-part to-do list has been recently posted on UfYH - the listmaker uses one list to set a schedule of tasks to be accomplished chronologically and then and makes another list of rewards for completing tasks! This means the listmakes GETS TO CROSS OFF TWICE AS MANY THINGS.

SO! What do YOU do to keep track of things? Or are you pleasantly superior because you don't need to keep track of things at all?

List of Lists

As you may have guessed from the blog title "Listing to the Side," I like lists. Here is a list of lists I like:

1. A list of things that have bearing, and a list of things that have no bearing, on whether you are not a grown-up for realsies. On the frequently adorable blog, Adulting.

2. A list of four good daily habits to help keep clutter at bay. On the frequently inspiring blog, Unclutterer.

3. A To Do list that reminds me of many To Do lists I have myself made. On the frequently baffling and hilariously obscene webcomic, Three Word Phrase.

4. A list of eleven fashion upgrades recommended for adult men. I agree with nine out of eleven of these! You are welcome to guess which I think are incorrect. On the frequently useful site, Primer Magazine.

5. A visual list* of Impressive Bedhead I Have Experienced:

Fun fact: In one of these pictures, there is actually a Pomeranian on my head!

 
6. Not enough for ya? Huh? Huh? Need some more lists? How about a LIST OF LISTS OF LISTS? On the frequently amazing Wikipedia, naturally.

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* Disclaimer: Number five may actually be more of a group than a list.

Two Foods

These two recipes are both easy to make, and both pack a lot of protein. Both are vegan, and both will keep well in the refrigerator for at least a week in an airtight container.


1. Maple Dijon Tofu

(I modified this from a chicken recipe.)

1 package tofu
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 TBSP maple syrup
1 TBSP red wine vinegar

Drain tofu block. Slice into eight slabs. Press between dishtowels and under something heavy for at least a half hour. Then score both sides of each slab.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together mustard, syrup and vinegar. You can taste the mixture and decide whether or not you'd like to add salt and/or pepper at this stage, or you can wait till the end.

Dredge tofu in the mustard mixture, making sure to coat both sides. I had some extra mustard mixture so I dredged some scored scallions, too. 

Place on foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 450 for about 40 minutes, or until pleasingly brown around the edges.

Season with salt, pepper, or fresh rosemary if desired. I did not desire to season the tofu in any additional way.



2. Zucchini Salad

1 onion
1 small handful fresh parsley
3 small zucchini
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup vegetable broth (I used Penzeys)
1 can chick peas (I used Goya)
1 cup chopped walnuts
apple cider vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

Chop the onion and parsley. Set aside in just enough apple cider vinegar to cover while you do everything else.

Prepare quinoa in broth to package instructions. Set it aside to cool.

Chop zucchini into nickel- or standard D6-sized chunks. Blanch and shock. Set aside to cool.

Drain and rinse chick peas.

Add zucchini, quinoa, chick peas and walnuts to onion mixture. Drizzle with olive oil and stir to combine.

Wait at least an hour and THEN add salt and pepper to taste, or salt and pepper individual servings. My vegetable broth and canned chick peas made this salty enough for me, and I just added some pepper.

Makes .... about five 1.5 cup servings, probably.

Judgmental Alphabet list-in-progress

He's quite an aesthete. She's friendly, but a bit of a flibbertigibbet. There are many labels like these that beg to be illustrated by Edward Gorey. In my Time Travel Alphabet Book Fantasy, Gorey says, "Gosh, Emily, what a swell idea! I've done some things like that. Would you like to come visit Elephant House while I work on illustrating this?" And then we hang out.

This alphabet is incomplete! As is the case with my list-in-progress of cultural reasons to wear red for every month of the year, I welcome suggestions to fill in the blanks.

Aesthete
Bourgeois
Curmudgeon
Dilettante
Enemy
Flibbertigibbet
Gaddabout
Hellion
Insurgent
Jokester
K
Libertine
Mensch
Nob (reader suggestion)
O
P
Q
Rake
Strumpet
Tart?
U

Villain (reader suggestion)
Wunderkind
X
Yokel
Z

In Which the Internet Teaches Me to Clean Things

I enjoy activities that combine laziness and science. Here are two:

1. As a commenter suggested in the amazing Unfuck Your Habitat community, mouthwash will remove coffee and tea stains from mugs as well as from teeth. I had purchased some Original Listerine because it seemed retro-fancy. Ladies and Gentlemen, it was NOT retro-fancy. I disliked the flavor to an extent that I will not describe here, and went back to Cool Mint. However, the Original was not a waste since swishing it around in a stained mug for a few seconds and then sponging it off yields a clean, unstained mug with zero scrubbing on my part.

Before and after The Mouthwash Treatment. 

2. My household inherited some lovely sterling silver from grandparents. However, we don't use these things and they became oxidized over time. I wanted them to be shiny, but I didn't want to devote any polishing or scrubbing time or effort, nor did I want to spend money on polish or wipes. Luckily, I was able to use water, aluminum foil, baking soda and sitting around, all of which I already had. The results were actually more impressive than can be noted from this before and after shot, since I had to get a weird angle on the "after" so as to not reflect in the Asparagus Server, it is now so shiny.

Red All Year list-in-progress

I am working on a list of cultural reasons to wear red every month of the year. Suggestions welcome!

January - Chinese New Year (sometimes in February)
February - St. Valentine's Day and Women's Heart Health
March - Red Nose Day, which coordinated fund raising efforts for Comic Relief, was March 18, 2011. Why not continue this tradition by wearing red and making a donation this day?
April - The Sasha has suggested wearing red to celebrate the Red Hat Society on April 25th!
May - Celebrate unions on May Day! Suggested in the comments.
June - Summer Solstice - I mean, why not?
July - With blue and white for Bastille Day or USA's Independence Day.
August -
September - I invite you to wear red to celebrate my birthday.
October -
November -
December - With green for Christmas or with green and black for Kwanzaa.

Six pairs of my red shoes. 

Alphabet Games to Aid Sleep

You know how sometimes you can't sleep at night because your mind is racing, filled with lists of things to do and things you've done? Yeah, I hate that. So I play alphabet games to keep my mind occupied with Silly Things rather than Important Things. Sometimes it's just applying a category to the alphabet: Positive adjectives! Awesome, Brilliant, Cool, Decisive ... Careers! Astronaut, Baker, Con Artist, Deep Sea Diver .... Sometimes I alternate between adjective and noun as I go through the alphabet: Aerodynamic Bog, Chipper Deviant, Eclectic Fishwife ..., but every now and then I go all out. 

I Love My Love 

I love my love with an A because he is awesome. I hate when he's anxious. His name is Aaron and he's an air traffic controller from Akron. He gave me an apple. 

I love my love with a B because she is bright. I hate when she's blameworthy. Her name is Bonnie and she's a beautician from Bangladesh. She gave me a betta. 

... etc. 

There are many variants of the "I love my love with a ..." games, most of which seem to be called The Alphabet Game. I'd love to know more about it. I guess a consultation of the Opies is in order. My introduction to this game was from Alice: 

'I see nobody on the road,' said Alice.

'I only wish I had such eyes,' the King remarked in a fretful tone. 'To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!'

All this was lost on Alice, who was still looking intently along the road, shading her eyes with one hand. 'I see somebody now!' she exclaimed at last. 'But he's coming very slowly—and what curious attitudes he goes into!' (For the messenger kept skipping up and down, and wriggling like an eel, as he came along, with his great hands spread out like fans on each side.)

'Not at all,' said the King. 'He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger—and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he's happy. His name is Haigha.' (He pronounced it so as to rhyme with 'mayor.')

'I love my love with an H,' Alice couldn't help beginning, 'because he is Happy. I hate him with an H, because he is Hideous. I fed him with—with—with Ham-sandwiches and Hay. His name is Haigha, and he lives—'

'He lives on the Hill,' the King remarked simply, without the least idea that he was joining in the game, while Alice was still hesitating for the name of a town beginning with H. 'The other Messenger's called Hatta. I must have TWO, you know—to come and go. One to come, and one to go.' - Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll.