Last night, as part of responding to a meme-tag from Freshhell at Life in Scribbletown, I posted five things from my to do list for today and promised to report on how I did. Here’s the report
1. Go for a run in the morning.
It wasn’t pretty, but I did go for a run this morning. I was slow as molasses, even slower than I was on Sunday. Despite the day off yesterday, my legs — my quads, mostly — ached and had nothing to give me. On Sunday, I ran 9.57 in 1:22:37 (an average pace of 8:38 minutes/mile); this morning, I ran 3.64 miles in 35:21, an average pace of 9:42. I’m not entirely sure what happened, excepted that I lifted at the gym on Saturday (including squats) for the first time in three weeks, and may have taken too much out of my leg muscles.
2. Submit TTB to another magazine (snail mail again).
I took care of this on my way to the office. It cost $2.53 for first class mail (no surprise there — it’s a 63-page manuscript).
3. Take my glasses to the optometrist to have new lenses installed.
Yup, got this done at lunch, dropped off my regular glasses and my sunglasses just before the deluge started. I’m hoping they’ll be done by Friday; I’m traveling next week, and I’m stuck wearing my spare glasses until then, and I hate hate hate traveling with only one pair of glasses.
4. Make significant progress on a couple of briefs I need to get through by the end of the week.
I did all right on this one. I got a first draft finished this afternoon on the easier one, and spent most of the evening (when I wasn’t watching Barack’s victory speech or Hillary’s “victory” speech) working on the hard one. Lots more to do, but I got them off the ground, which was what I needed to do today.
5. Write 500 words — just 500 lousy words! — of Meet the Larssons.
Yeah, well, you can’t do everything. Nobody’s perfect. I wrote 350 words, all of them on the train. I got jammed up with work (see no. 4, above). I’ll try again tomorrow.
So there you have it. I have to say, I almost certainly would have turned off the alarm and gone back to bed this morning if I hadn’t posted about going for a run, so thanks for the social pressure.
The Unfocused Life 
To Do lists can be useful, it’s getting around to them and using them once you create them. That’s my problem.
As far as writing – my goal is one page at day of any project and also at least one or two submissions a week of magazine queries.
Steve
That’s a good goal, Steve. Taking your projects in manageable, bite-sized pieces. may not be the fastest way to finish them, but it moves them consistently into the “done” pile.
Okay, I know I’m a little bit past due with my two cents, but anyway… I just want to say that there are days for a lot of us when 500 words (or 350, or 200) is actually good… As long as you’re making progress, it’ll add up.
Thanks, Diane, and of course, you’re right. But I do like measurable goals, and I get aggravated when I don’t meet them.