I work at home in both of my professions, clinical social work and writing, with a comfortable office in which I see clients and groups, and a desk adjacent to the kitchen where my computer sits, and where I enter handwritten work, edit, blog…and make lists.
Not electronic lists. Lists on index cards.
I love lists. They calm me. They give order. They provide confidence and hope that I will be able to complete tasks that might otherwise feel overwhelming or too-easily forgettable.
But (this will probably not be a surprise to some of you fellow list-makers) I can use lists to (ouch!) avoid actually doing anything.
And when that happens, the little list can cause, rather than diminish, agitation.
That threatened to happen this morning, when it was time to write, and the lovely green 4 x 7 index card with my list on it blurted out seven or ten or twenty truly important things to do. 
But buoyed by the fact that I work hard to take my own advice, and by recent comments on an earlier post of mine by Greg Pincus, Marisa Birns, Julie Duck, Bonnie Adamson and Paul Greci about breaking into potentially downward spirals, I left home.
I had an hour and a half between clients. I had five or six green-card things I could do in that time. The temptation to accomplish those things pulled at me like The Doldrums in THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH.
Instead I said, “No! I’m out of here,” more to myself than to my husband who’s on break from teaching college math classes, and headed out to Panera, a favorite local writing place.
The minute I was out the door, into the car, my chest cleared, filled with air (freezing Chicago air, I might add) and possibility.
Wow! That change of direction, change of decision, change of behavior or change of activity works so well to create positive emotion…and then, positive emotion opens the brain to creativity, problem-solving, energy.
I worked for an hour, wrote two additional poem drafts for my middle grade novel and reorganized pending poems for this current draft. I got a lot done! More than I ever would have sitting at my desk with my green index card staring at me.
Take that, little green list!
You are now bookmarked MIGHTILY! Thank you for such wonderful advice…such a wealth of information to hold on to and refer back to, time and time again. Terrific!
Thanks, Christine! Hope you’ll visit and comment frequently.