I am a lover of the to-do list. If there is something that needs to get done, you can be sure that I will write it down, because as much as I hate having an overloaded schedule, I also love meticulously cataloguing everything that I possibly can into a neat list. Having a to-do list on hand is comforting to me; it makes me feel organized and reminds me that I don’t have to worry about remembering every little detail, because it’s already written down.
My to-do list habit began in high school, but has expanded ever since I came to college. In the Notes sections of my iPhone I currently have a giant list that tells me everything I need to do for the week: chapters to read, people to email, events to go to. It’s all there. And nothing’s better than that wonderful feeling of accomplishment that I get when cross something off my list.
This past winter break I came across several old to-do lists from my senior year of high school that I’d forgotten to throw away. Some of the crossed-off items on the list, like Ask teachers for letters of recommendation and Finish the Common App and Write Frankenstein Essay brought back memories of the stressful time that last year really was. There were other entries, however, that remained uncrossed, never done. These were things that I wanted to do but didn’t have to do and so got pushed aside in favor of doing other work. They were optional things.
For example, I noticed that one of the uncrossed-off things was Get new glasses. Winter of my senior year, I’d grown tired of the style of my glasses and wanted to order some new ones. Of course, I was busy, so I’d put it off. Week after week, I added Get new glasses to the list, but it remained undone in favor of other things on every list. When do you think I finally ordered my new glasses? Spring? Summer? Actually, I got them in the mail this past Friday, less than a week ago. Yes, it took me a year to finally get around to doing this thing that I wanted to do. There were similar instances throughout the to-do lists. I never saw that movie that I wanted to see, or I never hung out with a person that I wanted to hang out with.
What does it matter if I put these things off? Well, I don’t just make to-do lists. I also make goal lists (and a whole bunch of other types of lists, because I like to try to organize my thoughts, but that’s beside the point). I have a list of goals of things that I hope to achieve, both in the short-term and long-term. Things that I want to make happen, whether for college, or my future career, or life in general. Having a list of goals is great—until it comes to actually doing the things on the list. Because goals? Goals are optional. You don’t have to achieve your goals. No one’s going to make you. And if you have something else to do, it’s easy enough to put off trying to reach them. The same tendency that I noticed in my to-do lists—putting off the things that I want to do in favor of day-to-day obligations—I also noticed in my attitude towards meeting my goals. Ever since I’d written them down, I hadn’t made any concrete steps toward meeting them. Life had gotten in the way.
So, I decided to start doing something about it. New year, new you—it’s cliched, definitely, but with the start of 2017 came the desire to start trying to do the things that I want to do. So even though it would have been easier to keep living life as usual, I knew I had to make some effort towards my goals. One of them was Write for a publication at Kenyon. I’ve always loved to write, but lately that had been pushed aside in favor of other commitments. Upon coming back to school in January, I decided to try to put this goal into action—I applied to write for Her Campus Kenyon! Three weeks later, here I am, writing my second article. I found that when I actually put work towards my goals, I was capable of achieving them. It sounds intuitive, but is easy to forget.
Time passes more quickly every day; I discovered that if I don’t commit to actually doing the things that I really wish I could do, I’ll never do them. But, really, the feeling of accomplishment you get by crossing something off your to-do list doesn’t even compare to the amazing feeling of reaching a goal.