From To Do to Ta-da!
Image Description: A woman’s hands, one holding a blue marker , the other a pink Post-It note that says “To Do.” Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash
While the transition from one year into the next can be a somewhat arbitrary movement from one day into another, we often ascribe this transition as an opportunity for movement forward in our lives and pursuits. The days are starting to get longer. The joy (and stress) of the holidays is behind us. And now we enter a new year with an expectation that we need to do all we can to make things and ourselves better.
I’ve written before on the value of and different approaches to making creative resolutions and goals. Today I want to focus more on how we can reflect on the past to help us better manage our goals and our expectations.
Two years ago, I began an experiment as a sidebar to the never-ending To Do list that had become part of my standard operating procedure for my work, projects, chores, and life. To Do lists may be a necessity (especially for those of us who don’t have stellar memories), but they can also sometimes feel like an exercise in futility and frustration. Just making a list doesn’t create priorities within that list. Seeing a long list can be a constant reminder of what hasn’t been done. The very sight of a CVS-receipt-length to-do list can bring out the inner procrastinator.
In my case, I knew that I needed a To Do list to jog my memory, but I also didn’t want it to weigh me down. So I got a white board which I affixed to the front of my refrigerator (one could also use a wall in your office, but there is something about the front of a fridge that makes it impossible to ignore). I drew a line about ⅓ from the right side. On the right of that line, I could add my To Do items. On the left of it, I would record “Wins of the Week.” The Wins could be anything. At first, I mostly used the Wins space to reposition things from the To Do list to the Done list. There was something joyful about erasing items on the right side and adding them to the left side.
Soon though I found that many of the Wins I was recording were things that had never even made it to my To Do list: completing a chapter of my book, taking time to make a painting, managing a complicated project for work, having a fun conversation with a friend, how many times I cooked from scratch that week, going on a long walk, etc. etc.
Since the Wins side of the board would be wiped clean each Sunday night, I decided it might be fun to record my top win of each week on a piece of paper and put them into a jar that I titled “Wins of the Year.” I did this for all of the past year, simply recording the selected win and the date on a small piece of green paper. I figured, if nothing else, it would be a fun thing to empty the jar in January to combat the winter blues with some positivity.
This past weekend, I poured out the jar and read out loud more than 50 wins from the past year.
Image Description: More than a dozen little green pieces of paper with various “wins of the week” noted on them. Image courtesy of the author.
Not only was this a fun exercise, it also reminded of a few important things that are good reminders for us all:
Savor the small wins. Sometimes we can get so caught up in our big goals that we forget to appreciate the small steps that helped us move towards those goals. I could bemoan the fact that I was still working on an unfinished project or I could relish each and every time I added to it, made a breakthrough, navigated an obstacle, got a new idea, gained energy from talking about it with someone else, or worked on the project at all. The To-Do list will always have something on it. And some of those somethings can feel really big and seemingly insurmountable. Seeing in my own handwriting the times my win of the week was just writing made me feel a little closer to achieving my bigger goals.
Reconsider what’s really important. I was fascinated to see that the wins that I chose from each week often had nothing directly to do with my work and yet had everything to do with the frame of mind I was in to do the work. I finally completed and used my second bedroom as a functional office/studio space. Yes I do my full-time job and my consulting work out of it, but I also use it for writing, collage, painting, and more. I enjoyed the serendipity of discovering a new walking trail when I had to enter a park from a different place due to lack of parking. Walks are not only good for the body, they are where I do some of my deepest creative thinking. Similarly I made time for twice monthly drives to the closest lake for a morning swim and to catch up with friends. The drive time allowed me to listen to audiobooks that gave me ideas for my own book. Being in water and in the company of friends is rejuvenating. I unearthed a long forgotten painting when I cleaned up my laundry room. Seeing one’s own art after many years is like revisiting a long lost friend who inspires me to pick up the creative practice again. Some of my wins were markers of the realities of our times. Never before would I have counted things like getting a haircut, going inside a grocery store or a museum, or hugging a friend as more than mundane activities, but these were important milestones amidst a pandemic.
Reconnect with your sense of awe. Truth be told, these words were something I cut out of a magazine and ended up adding to a vision board (yes, I always did an eye roll at the thought of vision boards until I actually made one). I made good on this and it is reflected in my wins. I was in awe of being in the presence of majestic eagles. I was in awe of scenic drives to places I had never been, including neighborhoods and regions less than an hour from my house. I was in awe of the changing seasons. I was in awe of other people’s creativity, even as I saw their work only on Facebook, read it on a Kindle, or discussed a work-in-progress in a Zoom meeting. Sometimes we can be so focused on big things where we are expected to be in awe (hiking the Grand Canyon, nabbing tickets to see Hamilton, or seeing our own name in lights) that we forget that awe-inspiring things are all around us if we remember to pay attention.
Listen. Of all the Wins of the Week, my favorite was one that simply said, “I took it easy, listening to my body to rest and do mindless stuff.” I don’t remember the context of why this win rose to the top of that week. Was I tired? Under the weather? Stressed? Disappointed in something that had not come to pass? Depressed by some news of the world? Who knows? What is important is that this simple win is what I chose to remember. Sometimes we do have to listen to what our body and mind are telling us and not need to have something notable to record beyond giving ourselves time to rest and renew.
While I will never not have a To-Do list, I am OK with the items on it being erased once they are completed. Meanwhile, I have already started again on recording this year’s Wins of the Week and know that it will be the small moments that will be transformational and magical. Ta-Da!
What’s a small win that has made a big impact for you?
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