I find myself often making lists. Lo-priority, hi-priority, with subheadings like daily/weekly/monthly. It’s got worse over the years, more things added as I become a/ more forgetful and b/ there are new things I want to try every day. I periodically set myself rules. Nothing new may be added until something is ‘done’, but what if I forget some wonderful new idea before I am ‘allowed’ to add it to the list? Does brushing your teeth and doing the breakfast dishes really count? It IS two ticks and can get you going in a positive mode for the rest of the day. If something is top of the list for three days and remains undone, should I accept I don’t really want to do it – what is my strategy – delete or somehow inspire or browbeat myself into doing it first thing on day four??

I find myself making a ‘to-do’ list to delay making the decision of what to do first.  Sometimes that’s because the list is vast and overwhelming but often it’s because I am avoiding what I know I should do, in favour of what I’d like to do . There is a virtuous smugness in crossing off things I’d rather not do – clean the stove top, clean the fridge, but a sense of cheating or being lazy if I surf the internet (doing strictly research of course) or repot a favourite plant.

I am supposed to do yoga everyday, a morning walk, a weekly blog – and somehow, mysteriously, it doesn’t happen.

Which kind of links in to something else, resolutions, usually limited to !st January or 8 weeks before a holiday ( vacation). This is my first promise to myself – NOTHING goes into the freezer minus a label ever again!!