Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
Sing the title to the tune of “I’m a Girl Watcher.” Yeah, I know, the rhythm’s a bit off, but that’s how my mind works.
And I am a to-do lister. I’m very big on making lists, and I find tremendous satisfaction in crossing items off.
A colleague once said to me, “You seem to get a lot of things accomplished. What’s your secret?” For my explanation I echoed something I taught in Intro to Theatre when I discussed the view of the world found in the Medieval way of thinking.
That world was a very hierarchical one, from lowly peasant to highborn king, and on to God above. That listing of low to high (or high to low, like an advanced Amazon search) was applied to many things, including flowers (weeds to roses) and stones (lead to gold).
Someone also decided that there were different classifications of angels. So you look at angels, but on closer examination you see Archangels, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, etc. Yes, who bothered to come up with that I have no idea, nor do I have any thought as to why that was necessary.
But, if you look at my to-do list you see something similar, At first, there’s a simple listing of things to be done. But I take it one step further and subdivide each item into smaller tasks. For example, for our recent film shoot, I had various items listed:
- Schedule shoot
- Assemble costume and props
- Shoot
- Edit
- Submit to film festivals
That’s a bit simplistic, and in fact could get much more detailed; under edit there’s also “Add sound effects,” “Apply chroma key,” and “Add credits.” I could have included those, but I decided to save paper. And yes, I print them out; doing strikethough in Microsoft Word just doesn’t provide the same satisfaction as running a pen point over an item printed on paper.
So this is my recipe for personal alchemy (turning lead into gold): not only do I make a to-do list, I also make a blueprint about how to accomplish each item. If I have 5 minutes, I can glance at my list and find something I can cross off in a short amount of time. It’s like making a quilt; even if you only added one block a day, you could eventually cover a bed with the finished product.
As for the prompt and what never gets done—my to-do list is an evolving document with new things always being added. (I wake up with a thought: an AI-generated script about XYZ, with a short film and some AI voices and music—add it to the list!) Adding doesn’t directly lead to more satisfaction, until I then complete that item, but then: it’s something else done and accomplished.
MUSOFYR 