I’m big on the Five Things List. There’s no way for me to know where I got the idea, but it was certainly from a blog and I know that I started doing it on 21 Dec 2009. In the little notebook in my bag, the pages are filling up with five things that I accomplished today. At first it was a neat little hack to keep an eye on the projects that were getting real face time. Job related items don’t make the list. Only things that are done on my clock count. As a result, there’s a tendency to pad things when only one project is in motion. But the technique is a great way to track values.
In most lists there is at least one reference to my son. Whether we baked some cookies or he “helped” mow the lawn or we read an extra book at story time, he generally makes the cut. There is also always some reference to a musical project. It could be a new recording or a new instrument. Maybe a tool finally arrived or I found a new way of doing something through trial and error. Those things make the list. And there are self care items. Trips to the doctor or errands that are finally done. Reading and listening progress. Things that I do.
But the things I mentioned above aren’t the real trick. The real trick, which I’m still trying to master, is imaging what I want the list to say and making it so. My mom does the same thing but kicks it up a notch. She makes lists of five things she wants to do tomorrow. I tried that too. It works for her because she’s OK with hitting three out of five. When I see that I can’t check off every item, I get bummed out. It doesn’t help that I write things like “Research the history of Luthierie in southern Spain” as list items. So I’m working toward making the list a certain shape. If I hit the general curve, it feels good and pushes me to do more. And I know that at the end of the day I need to write down Five Things, so I’d better have at least that many.
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