List Making Love

“The more you do, the more you can do.”

I don’t know who said that, or where I found it years ago. I only know that it is true.

I’m sure it must be related to Newton’s laws of motion. You know… bodies in motion stay in motion, and bodies at rest stay at rest, yada yada yada.

My body prefers to stay at rest. But when I do get all hopped up on the French Roast, I can get some things done… if I know what to do.

Now, if you are a hot mess like me, you probably need some kind of a list to keep you on track. “You can’t hit a target that isn’t there,” right? My problem has always been that I lose my lists. Almost daily. And my lists are so long that I always run out of steam and am just no damn good at prioritizing.

But not anymore!

I have discovered Toodledo.

About two weeks ago I finally joined the ranks of iPhone owners. And it is seriously changing my life. And not just because there is a free app that makes fart sounds.

I bought the Toodledo app for my iPhone ($2.99) so that I could have a digital To-Do list with me wherever I go. Little did I know that it would become such an important part of my life and contribute so profoundly to an increase in my daily productivity.

Many years ago, I had a crazy co-worker named Francis who was such a burnout that he would put things on his daily T0-Do list like “trim toenails” and “eat lunch.” He indiscreetly left his list laying about for all the world to see because he was afraid he would lose it and not know which bodily function to address next. Unfortunately for Francis, once I caught a peek of his list, I could never look at him the same way. My husband and I made so much fun of that poor guy. We would add similar things to our own lists like “poop” and “breathe” just to rag on him.

But now that I have Toodledo on my iPhone, I am tempted to add things like this to my own list just so I can play with the cool options, set alarms for myself, and schedule repeating reminders like “Only floss the ones you want to keep!” and “Time to drink some water!” It’s becoming an obsession.

This thing is brilliant. Seriously. It actually uses a mathematical algorithm to order your list for you as you add new tasks, telling you what you need to do next based on due date, priority, starred items, etc. It can also manage notes, so if you have an errand on your list, you can type right in what things you need at that store. No more lost or forgotten lists!

You can even wirelessly sync it with your home computer so you never have to worry about losing your To-Dos and notes if you lose or wash your phone. Because let’s face it, if you wash your phone, you have bigger problems than also having to remember what you were supposed to do that day. Uh, hypothetically speaking, of course.

And now, I can check off my Toodledo list that I wrote my Just the Tip Tuesday post for this week! Yay me! An accomplishment! I’m on FIRE today and it’s only 9:30 AM!

Could this actually be the year that I get my taxes done before midnight on April 15th? Me thinks yes. Toodledo, I love you. Promise me you’ll never leave and I promise you I’ll never download the Stool Scanner app.

The beginning of wisdom, is the desire for discipline.
– The Wisdom of Solomon.

© Copyright 2011, The Bearded Iris.