MY WEEKLY BLOG<\/p>\n
My DON\u2019T DO List<\/p>\n
During these Covid days, it\u2019s become popular to make to-do\u00a0lists. Long ones. Maybe it\u2019s because we\u2019re at home so much, we need to fill in\u00a0the time. Maybe we can\u2019t tolerate clutter and things that are not working.\u00a0Maybe it\u2019s because we have so little control over our environment with the\u00a0virus running rampant, we want to be able to control something. We all have\u00a0different reasons to compose our to-do lists, but whatever the impetus, they\u00a0seem to have become prevalent and when we don’t complete them, we feel anxious\u00a0and inadequate. We put great pressure on ourselves to do everything on the\u00a0list, but we can never get there because as soon as we check something off,\u00a0something else appears. Or several \u201csomething elses\u201d appear.<\/p>\n
I was perusing my to-do list lately about house rand car repairs,
junk drawers and cleaning out closets, wondering why it was all taking\u00a0me so long, when I stopped a moment and exhaled. I was really good at listing\u00a0the things I wanted to do but what about the things that I didn\u2019t want to do? What\u00a0about the things I did that made me feel badly and caused me pain.<\/p>\n
I put my to-do list aside, grabbed a new piece of paper and
labeled it \u201cMy Don’t Do List.\u00a0I was surprised at how quickly the page filled up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Make judgments about other people for the same mistakes I\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Make negative judgments about myself.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fill in time with unnecessary activity.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Judge myself for watching TV and not reading enough.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Get angry in traffic.<\/p>\n
6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Get irritated with sales people on the phone who aren’t moving fast enough.<\/p>\n
7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chastise myself for not immediately returning phone calls.<\/p>\n
8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Agree to show up at places I don\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n
9.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do things that make me unhappy like watching the news and criticizing other people.<\/p>\n
10. Forget to sing and dance.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, the idea of being productive is overrated.\u00a0It\u2019s like a dog chasing his tail. He runs around in a circle, he keeps picking
up speed but he never gets there and he collapses in exhaustion. Have you ever\u00a0been to the dog races? The sleek Greyhounds chase a fake rabbit that runs just\u00a0ahead of them on a track, they cross the finish line and they never catch the\u00a0bait. I do my best to keep that kind of useless rushing around out of my life.<\/p>\n
At this stage, as I navigate a world that is increasingly unpredictable
and often scary, the most important thing for me is to avoid anxiety. Nothing\u00a0ages me more or causes my moods to somersault. Nothing hurts my heart and my\u00a0head more than being anxious. On the opposite side of the coin, nothing feels\u00a0better than breathing deeply, staying calm and being present. When I remind\u00a0myself to quiet my mind chatter, slow down and practice being okay with myself,\u00a0it doesn’t matter if I make a dent in my to-do list or not. My Don’t Do list is\u00a0far more valuable.<\/p>\n
Before I finish this blog, I just found a few more Don\u2019ts\u00a0to add to the list:<\/p>\n
Don’t forget to write every day. It\u2019s my form of meditation.<\/p>\n
Don’t neglect the people who love me.<\/p>\n
And most importantly:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t lose my Don’t Do list. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MY WEEKLY BLOG My DON\u2019T DO List During these Covid days, it\u2019s become popular to make to-do\u00a0lists. Long ones. Maybe it\u2019s because we\u2019re at home so much, we need to fill in\u00a0the time. Maybe we can\u2019t tolerate clutter and things that are not working.\u00a0Maybe it\u2019s because we have so little control over our environment with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}