Getting Stuff Done

I'm a list person.

I'm sure I've mentioned a thousand times that I'm a list person.  I make a list. I work on tasks and I check off things on said list.

Sometimes lists A turns into List B and C.  List upon list.  There may be something on List A that requires a couple of other things to be done before it can be completed. Thus starting List B.  Really, in PM terms, lists are work breakdown structures for our lives.

Somehow in my life I figured out that one of the best ways to make myself feel like I've accomplished something is to put it on a list. I have been known - I admit - to put something on a list just to turn around and cross it off.

It's cathartic.

It's my therapy at times.

It's what drives me to get stuff done. 

I'm constantly baffled at how people who seem intelligent and active participants in this community can't get shit done.  It seems so simple to me. Make a list. Do the work.  Period. Yet, there seems to be a gene out there that blocks people's understanding about getting stuff done. Even the most mundane of tasks they can't seem to accomplish. It's baffling.

It makes me wonder how they get through life. What makes them feel accomplished? What makes them able to sit back and feel like they've done something worthwhile during their day?

I've had a recent situation arise in which it's taken almost a year for what I consider a simple task to get completed.  It still hasn't been completed, and I can guarantee that if I put this task on my list it would be done by months end. Easily. 

I, like many of you, have a full time job. I have friends I enjoy seeing. I have some type of life that keeps me busy and occupied. And yet, I manage my time so that I have a clean house (granted it's usually cleaned by my cleaners - but still I do have to clean in between visits). I manage to pay my bills on time. I manage to review my list and get stuff done on a regular basis.  It's not always in the time frame I had hoped (for example I still have a box of garage sale stuff sitting in the spare room instead of down in the garage where it belongs. The box has been there for 3 months and on the list that same amount of time.)

And yet, people who seem to have less than the average life stuff going on cannot manage to complete a task within a year.  It baffles me. And it makes me curious. Very curious.

What do other people do to get things done?  Maybe my list - ahem - fetish isn't normal? Maybe that I'm just an over achiever with really nothing else to do in my life but put stuff on a list and cross it off once completed? Maybe this person doesn't want to put stuff on a list because when it doesn't get completed it's depressing? Maybe this person doesn't have cool paper or a cool notebook to put said stuff on a list?

Maybe, just maybe, this person needs some guidance and direction about how to make lists and actually do stuff on them and understand the feeling of accomplishment?

Or maybe some people are just destined to wander through life never really getting anything done but feeling like they're always busy?  Either way, I still think a cool notebook to put stuff in is essential in life.