Hi, Friends

If you love a “to do” list, you’ll be familiar with the satisfaction associated with striking a line through (like so) or check mark beside (✅) something you’d set out to achieve. I’m mad for it and have been since first implementing this system in 2006 / 2007, whilst working a job I hated.

To be clear, the business was great. My boss was a good guy. My colleagues became good friends. My pay was pretty poor but I’d been on $5.30 an hour a few short years earlier good too. The problem was that I (a) had delusions of grandeur, and (b) simply wasn’t cut out for some aspects of the role.

The gig was in the insurance industry as a glorified assistant to three account executives, which meant I had lots to do for several different people. Some of my assigned tasks were incredibly urgent, like increasing the cover on a person’s home or business policy, while others were less so, like changing address details or other admin tasks. It was up to me to know which was which.

For Example:

“Insure $250,000 Boat” = Urgent
“Buy Sausage Rolls for Morning Tea” = More Urgent (obviously)
“Scan Documents to File” = Less So

This need to triage workflow is common to most roles and industries, except maybe “content creators” because that obviously isn’t a real job. (There, I said it) (and yes, I’m old).

Being my first foray into gainful employment, I did this prioritisation in my head. If something non-urgent didn’t get done on a given day, I’d commit it to memory and take action the next. Now just thinking about this system / lack thereof stresses me out, but it served me well at the time.

While only eighteen years ago, this was a golden time before smart phones and the concept of work from home. Reading / replying to emails outside of business hours was merely a fever dream for salary men like myself. Once you left the office, your day was done. It made for a healthy balance. The only problem was, if you forgot to do something urgent by 5:30pm, like insure someone’s new $40,000 motor vehicle, you (and in turn they) were shit out of luck until tomorrow. In case you hadn’t guessed, the car scenario was autobiographical.

Back then, I’d not yet discovered screenwriting, so my only creative outlet was envisaging horrible scenarios befalling me. (I’m still very good at this). My brain didn’t need help conjuring these, but a situation like the afore mentioned one brought out many of its most irrational thoughts leading to a very long, stressful and sleepless night imagining all the accidents this person was getting their uninsured souped-up ute into.

“He’s probably in a street drag now. Why else would he need a V8?”
“I bet he hits a light post. Those things are a quarter of a million bucks to replace.”
“Knowing my luck this bastard will t-bone a Ferrari.”

SIDE NOTE: the insurance industry was littered with stories like this. One in particular still stands out about my boss’ friend who forgot to arrange a cover note for a luxury yacht, only to learn the next day – amid the client’s phone call to lodge a claim – that said watercraft had been hit by a car in transit and was a write off.

I got lucky, but to avoid another night like that I started writing “to do” lists. They were effective at getting everything out of my head and onto paper, doing wonders for certain aspects of my mental health. So effective were they, two decades later I haven’t stopped.

Nowadays, there’s a host of software solutions to take care of this for a person, but I’m old school and still prefer pen on paper (of some kind). I recently moved house, and while doing so I found numerous reminders of these beautifully productive bygone days (see: old lists) scattered around. I noticed there was one thing common to almost all of them -  an annoying item that wasn’t ticked off.

Whether it was “do taxes” or “ring REDACTED” something would always invariably appear on multiple lists and get carried over. I found a whole host that perfectly depicted the evolution of me putting off one such infamous task.

It had gone from being written neatly in a notepad, to scrawled on a bank statement. It was on numerous Post-it notes in different rooms of the house and etched onto various envelopes. I had flashbacks to writing it on my hand for days on end, then my wrist, so it wouldn’t rub off. I even caved and called on technology, setting reminders in my phone. None of this motivated me to actually do the thing I needed to - “Transfer Superannuation”.

It wasn’t until I’d gone through all five stages of grief procrastination – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (I think self-loathing and delirium were involved too) - that I finally, after three, set aside ten minutes and marked it off. Yep, that’s how long it took, and all it was ever going to take.

There have been lots of “Transfer Superannuation” type tasks before and since, and they almost all took a few minutes to bowl over. In fact, many have taken mere seconds, like “Book Dentist” and “Change Postal Address”. (But who has a spare ten minutes on any given day? See: me every half hour).

I wish I’d known sooner that the things I kept putting off would only take me ten minutes. It would’ve saved me a lot of procrastination anxiety and pen ink! Then again, I’m happy I learned it as early as I did.

ZP / NpG

Today’s List:

• Write Newsletter

• Be Entertaining and Honest ❌ ✅

• Eat Healthily ❌ (mmm. sausage roll 🤤)

• Move My Body ✅

• Book Eye Test*

• Ring One Friend

*this previously would’ve had all the makings of a carryover item

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