Do you do that too? Make a list of what you want to do on your weekend? And I don’t mean something like a grocery list, or a list of chores, my list is all mixed. Chores, pleasurable things, mundane things.
I think my tendency to make endless lists is stemming from a deep desire to live my life as best as possible. It also stems from the experience that if I don’t make lists, if I don’t write down things nothing will get done, and by the end of the weekend I will feel bad about that.
I wasn’t always like this. Back in my twenties I spend weekends mostly alone, in bed. I kept the lists and the things to do for weekdays only, unless I had a big paper to write or something. I remember when I decided to make Saturday a workday, and felt almost shocked about this. Still, Sundays were spent in bed, reading, doing nothing, with a solitary walk in the afternoon.
Now, my life is much fuller than it used to be, and I have begun putting things on my lists like: “talk with husband”, “play with son”, “read comic”, and “take a shower”.
So, on Friday I made a list, and I did almost all the things I put on it, and now I feel quite good about my weekend and myself, only I have this feeling that I shouldn’t be making these lists all the time.
This was my list:
- seam, wash and block green cardigan
- spin
- block scarf that I made for my husband (has been lying around since April)
- clean house
- buy groceries
- go to hardware store
- play the guitar
- continue knitting Mystic Waters shawl
- read Flash and Firefly-Comics
I did everything on my list apart from cleaning, but then my husband vacuumed the whole house so he did my chore for me. What I didn’t put on my list but what I should have put on there was:
- practice recorder with son
- give son a bath
- exercise
It wasn’t on the list so I didn’t do it. Oops. On the other hand I did spend about an hour on Saturday teaching my son how to crochet. It was all very sweet. He had been studying a children’s catalogue full of clothes and toys, and suddenly he said, “I want to knit a bag like that.” Of course I was interested, and after telling him that it was indeed crochet, and that yes, I would teach him how to do it but only after breakfast, I fetched some yarn and a crochet hook. He’s becoming quite good at the actual crocheting part that you do with your right hand but he is completely unable to hold the yarn, and the piece he’s working on in his left, so for now he needs me to be his left hand. Which led to some frustration on his part when he wanted to work on his bag a little more after lunch, and when I couldn’t help him immediately he tried on his own only to discover that he can’t do it without me. Not the best for building self-esteem.
I don’t remember it being so hard. When thinking about how I learned to crochet and knit, I’m left with a feeling that my mother showed me briefly and then I got it. I remember that learning how to purl was a bit more complicated because I taught myself out of a book, and got it wrong but that was that.
On the other hand I was eight when I learned how to crochet and my son is only five years old. He will learn eventually. At least I hope that he will.
But, back to the list-making, I do find it a bit sad that I have to put things like “read comic” on a list to get them done. It’s only because I’m wading through heaps of unread books, comics, magazines, and blog posts.
So, while the weekend to-do-list does work for me, I still have the feeling that I shouldn’t be having one. And, of course, if my life were in order, I’d do the grocery shopping and other errands during the week.
So, what do you think about weekend to-do-lists? Do you have them? Do they work?
Well, I sometimes think, I should do more lists – of course to get things done.
And isn´t it a good thing, when You look at your list and You see, how much You have done? And of course I write all things on my lists, even to wash my hair. Not the readings, but I would, if I had a big pile to read.
You should be lucky, that You not only write a list, but fulfil it. It get´s me angry when I wrote a list and the at the end of the day or weekend, many thing are not done.
Have a nice week,
PiaPessoa
And for the crochet of Your son: I can´t remember, I had difficulties learning how to hold yarn and the piece of work, but I remember very good my little sister having problems. And I think it is influenced by how right- or left-handed somebody is (and I think, for a five-year-old it is difficult). I myself am very both-handed (if You can call it so). So for me learning something with the left or the right hand is the same difficulty. But for strong-handed persons it must be much harder.
I don’t have the weekend to do lists, per se, but I always make lists. I think they are great. Especially if it makes you feel good to see all the things you’ve accomplished.
My list would be similar to yours except instead of the knitting stuff I’d put sex stuff, but it’s not likely that I’d get around to it.
I do and I don’t. I save most of the hosueworky stuff for the week, unless there’s a big project we have to tackle as a family – so otherwise, there are things that we don’t do during the week planned (out-of-town library and grocery shopping), family activities, and crashing on the couch with a book, that sort of thing.
I used to have lists but now I just run. Something in me rebels against lists when I am busy.
I do however love making lists at the beginning of my holidays, maybe because I get to put things on them that matter to me. Things I love to do.
There was a famous Russian psychologist, Vygotsky, who wrote about teaching children things in what he called scaffolding. It means that the parent gives a lot of help in the beginning and starts gradually giving less tasks and increasing the complexity of the task. This way the child builds more confidence and often don’t even know they are learning. In cognitive Anthropology we also learn that a child learns best when activities form part of their everyday lives, maybe your mom had a lot more time to crochet and therefore you had more time to learn 🙂
All of this said when I look at the children of psychologists I often wonder how much knowing the theory really helps 😀