The Done List

Plodding along, putting one foot in front of the other, walking on and on and on, going through the same routine day after day, does not only describe the Israelites, the almost former Egyptian slaves, as they walk towards freedom, but also where we are today. The highlights of Purim and Pesach are a long time off, and so is the promised land of meeting friends and family for casual dinners and togetherness without restrictions, worries and large quantities of sanitizer. Life is hard - ‘oh whey oh’ - as the Bangles sang in ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’.

And yet routine is important to help us get through these winter days, sometimes all we can do is to put one foot in front of the other, before we reach a time where we can say dayeinu, it is enough, we have all done enough and we can now be free. One of those routines is the To Do List, which can both be a great help but also as unachievable as the promised land. To Do Lists are especially hard to get through at the moment, as we struggle with slowing internet connections, home schooling challenges, and our own or family needs, and yet the To Do List never shortens. 

But what about the Done List? It’s a way of changing the perspective, from the usual situation of beginning at minus every morning (I must send that email/clean the kitchen/help with home learning/do a class/walk the dog) striving to reach a state of ‘zero’ by the evening. As Oliver Burkeman suggests: What if you worked on the basis that you began each day at zero balance, so that everything you accomplished – every task you got done, every tiny thing you did to address the world's troubles, or the needs of your household – put you ever further into the black?...Each entry is a cheering reminder that you could, after all, have spent the day doing nothing constructive – yet look what you did instead! (If you're in a serious psychological rut, just lower the bar for what gets to count as an accomplishment: nobody else ever need know that you added "brushed teeth" or "made coffee" to the list.)

And he finishes with these words of wisdom; “But a done list isn't merely a way to feel better about yourself. If you can give up the impossible quest to pay off your productivity debt, and instead start thinking of each day as an opportunity to move a small-but-meaningful set of items over to your done list, you'll find yourself making better choices about what to focus on. And you’ll make more progress on them, too, because you’ll waste less time and energy being distracted by stress about all the other stuff you're (unavoidably) neglecting”.

Or as we say: Dayeinu - enough with the stress and the guilt of the To Do List. Life is hard, especially at the moment, so let’s focus on the Done List as well. 

Shabbat Shalom