to-do lists

I confess that I have a total love-hate relationship with to-do lists. I love them because they allow me to put my tasks on paper and I know what I have to do when. I hate them because as soon as I have a list I am driven to complete it as soon as possible.

The most insidious lists are those that are in my head. In the spring the tasks in my head are all garden related and items include:

pull weeks in strawberry bed
plant more blueberry bushes
pull weeks in blueberry beds
transplant perennials
pull weeds in flower bed
prune raspberries
pull weeds in raspberry beds
spread manure over garden
pull weeds

You get the idea. The catch with this never-ending and every-growing garden list is that I don't like to get out there mucking about when it's cold and rainy. But such is West Coast weather that if I wait for warmth and sun it will be June and the weeds will have turned into saplings.

For two weeks now I have been plagued with thoughts of what I had to do - and yes, the weeds were getting crazy. Today I went to the nursery, bought two gazillion packets of seeds: every variety of lettuce known to man, kale, chard, carrots, kohlrabi, peas, beans, basil, etc. etc. I also bought more blueberry bushes and stakes.

Better yet, I actually bundled up and got out there: planted the blueberries and weeded the strawberries. Those were the "most desperate" on my list. And now that I have begun, the guilt and stress of not getting started have faded away.

You want to know how bad I am at having lists just sit there? I look at my day timer at the start of every work day and tick off everything on the list. That way I get to have a day where everything is already psychologically done. I know - I'm certifiable. But I can live with that, I just can't live with undone lists.