A life of lists

I have finally discovered life’s Great Truth. It has nothing to do with learning to be at one with the universe, discovering a great love for your fellow human beings or even that death and taxes are the only certainties. It’s that your to-do list will never, ever end. I should really have seen this coming, but, for some reason, have never before considered the role played by job lists in our lives. I always vaguely thought that one day I would be able to cross the final job off my to-do list. This would probably be sorting out the bottom drawer in the kitchen – you know the one full of old batteries, rolls of tape, elastic bands, pencil stubs, charging cables and the general residue of life. It’s popularly known as the drawer of doom: Didn’t Organise Only Moved.

Once I had triumphantly crossed off this final job, I imagined there’d be nothing left for me to do but read books and newspapers, drink coffee, meet up with friends, do jigsaws and listen to music. Who I thought was going to phone the plumber, clean the bathroom or take the cat to the vet I don’t know. I hadn’t really given it any thought at all and might well have drifted along like this forever if I hadn’t been chatting to someone who told me that she had to dash off to tackle her job list. “What I don’t understand,” she said, “Is how do I still have a to-do list when I’ve been retired for several years?”  The same thought struck us both at once – you could be retired for 50 years, but that list would follow you around, constantly updating itself until the end of time.

But then I began to wonder if that was such a terrible thing. Maybe job lists are the very stuff of life itself. You can probably tell that this blog isn’t heavily researched, but I stirred myself sufficiently to take a quick look at some of my past lists. (I promise I don’t save scraps of paper – they’re all in a notebook that I throw away once it’s full. Clutter is not my friend.) Surprisingly, rather than all being dreary household chores, some of the jobs were really quite nice. Like ‘go to the market’, ‘make muffins’, ‘do Tai Chi’ or ‘write blog’. I was even feeling a touch nostalgic for the ones relating to organising holidays and finishing photobooks. These things can be a bit of a faff, but what great results!

I have come to accept that lists are an inevitable part of life, but I must remember to include the good stuff too. Although adding ‘eat chocolate’ might be going a bit far.