An Early Artifact
March’s theme at Life in Pencil is Beginnings.
Posted by Anne
I recently made an important archeological discovery. On the final day of our month focused on beginnings, it seemed appropriate to give you this glimpse of my early history. No, it’s not exactly on par with the discovery of Lucy or the remains of a tyrannosaurus, but it does explain a lot. Curious yet? Good. Because I’ve crafted a little report for you, detailing the pertinent details of my discovery.
Disclaimer: I have no clue what archeological reports look like.
Item: The First Known To-Do List crafted by Anne, of Life in Pencil
Medium: Smudgy pen on yellow legal pad
Date of Origin: Sunday, March 19th, 1989
Author: Anne, of Life in Pencil, at 9 years of age
Preserved by: Anne’s Mom
Discovered on: March 24th, 2010
Discovered by: Anne, of Life in Pencil
Discovery location/context: After months (or years?) of nagging, Anne assists her mother in a massive attic cleaning project by combing the contents of a very large Rubbermaid bin of treasures and trash. This artifact lay amongst the rubble.
Transcript of Content:
1. Get up
2. Watch m
2. Bath
3. Movie
4. 7:30 get dressed an ready
5. go to church
6. do stuff
7. come home
Analysis:
The actual artifact. Notice how my Mom dated it in the bottom corner for posterity.
It appears that the author of this “to-do-list” (Anne, age 9) possessed an early gift for planning her day. She was obviously an efficient child, as evidenced by her ability to get up, take a bath, and watch a movie all before 7:30am. She was also apparently a regular church-goer, and practiced good hygiene. We can also assume that from a very early age she enjoyed crossing items off her lists, since many of these items are rather non-negotiable (e.g. “get up”).
This list does, however, contain some troubling content. First of all, there’s the fact that she obviously had to think hard about prioritizing that bath. We can assume her original “item #2” was, in fact, “watch movie”, demonstrating an early love of film that outranked bathing.
Then there’s that highly ambiguous item #6. What kind of stuff was she doing? And with whom? And where? It is unclear how long she planned to do this “stuff”, since it is also unclear when exactly she plans to “come home”. And who’s giving her a ride home? Because of the ambiguous nature of this item, we are forced to conclude that Anne was either, A) a highly private 9-year-old, or B) indecisive about her afternoon activities.
We do find it encouraging, however, that Anne allowed herself a large portion of the day to “do stuff”. We can assume she had planned on an afternoon of fun—without specific agendas or goals to meet.
Implications:
Due to Anne’s current and adult fixation with lists, it must be concluded that the appropriate interventions were not administered, and she will go on to suffer a lifelong obsession with list formats. While this may seem tragic, we also believe her early propensity for lists helped Anne achieve some important goals, such as completing graduate school and continuing to shower throughout life.
Recommendations:
Anne, age 30, could take a cue from her 9-year-old self. If you must make a list, be sure you leave time to breathe, and simply do stuff.
Any theories on the kind of “stuff” a 9-year-old goody-two-shoes would be doing on a Sunday? Am I the only freak here who made a list at this age? Anyone else remember when they first started crafting lists?
March 31st, 2010 at 5:31 am
The list is enough fun, but your comments really made me laugh! (LOL, is that how we say it now??) I guess you were a little more “unique” than I thought at the time. Keep it up, kiddo!
March 31st, 2010 at 5:41 am
Like your mom, mine saved things and neatly captioned and dated them too! It’s a great quality in a mom.
And is that list written in PENCIL? Love the DO STUFF item.
Freakin’ adorable.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:27 am
This is HILARIOUS, Anne! I love how you craft a detailed archaeological report. I, too, was an avid listmaker, which I learned from my mom. My mom could always be seen with a clipboard; attached to it was the 12 or so lists she had going at any given moment (I tend to only keep one at a time). Once, she left the clipboard on the top of car, and when it went careering off down the road, she yelled, “My lists!” and frantically screeched to a halt to rescue her precious cargo.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:38 am
Wow, sis, you’ve really outdone yourself here. I’m almost as avid a list-maker as you are, but I don’t think even I really started making lists until Junior High. And even those were mostly homework assignments. You were clearly a list-making prodigy. Kudos to Mom for her preservation skills.
As for “doing stuff,” I think it’s a great list item. You could cross that item off the list for just about anything. Bake a souffle, work out, read a magazine, flush the toilet – they all count!!
Lastly, when making a list for a day with lots of logistical details (travel days, etc.) I too include “get up” on my list. Usually it’s just to establish the timeframe for the day. But it’s also nice to get out of bed and already be able to cross something off!
March 31st, 2010 at 8:45 am
This is so funny! It is neat to see that your 9 year old self was extremely organized yet also had a sense of balance and scheduled time to just “be” and “do stuff”.
March 31st, 2010 at 11:25 am
Though I don’t recall when I started making lists … I will admit that I still include bathe on all lists and have for quite some time. I have been teased for years about this but it’s not going to change. Clearly I am not one to live life in pencil much, eh? LOVED this Annie … it’s no wonder we are friends
March 31st, 2010 at 3:00 pm
That’s great your mom dated your list. Mine doesn’t even date letters. She was just in town and I dumped a stack of mail in front of her going as far back as 12 years ago and pointed out that not one single piece of correspondence was dated. I’ve mentioned it before, but I think the visual will leave a lasting impression. She called to say she mailed me a letter today. I bet it’s dated.
March 31st, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Annie, this is too funny! Your post made me laugh out loud – so enjoyable! I am a HUGE list person. I love to cross items off my list and so I too include things that are really non-negotiable when you think about it. I also like to add items and tasks in minute detail so that even if I don’t truly finish something, I can feel good about at least making some progress.
Do you remember the red assignment notebooks we had to have for middle school? They were shorter and skinnier than a regular spiral notebook, and they had places for you to list all your homework and then a box to check things off once you finished it. I think that’s when my list-making truly took root. There was no better feeling than checking those boxes and knowing that the item listed there was finished.
I love that this list is true to who you still are today – that you would have things to accomplish before 7:30 comes as no surprise to me. You’ve always been quite the early bird! Hope you get a chance to “do stuff” today that makes you happy
March 31st, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Anne, that is pricelesss! I love that you made lists that early, and yes, “planned” fun. Hope your still adding good things your lists today. Something we should all do!!! Maybe I’ll add it to my to-do list for tomorrow
April 1st, 2010 at 10:30 am
Anne, this post made me laugh and smile! Thanks for the funny and inspirational though about “Doing Stuff”. I am a big list writer my self and as I get older I forget to just leave time to “Do Stuff”! Thanks for the post!
John
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:17 am
This just made me laugh so hard in my office my co-worker came over to see what was the fuss!! HaHa… This is brilliant comedy!! “She was obviously an efficient child, as evidenced by her ability to get up, take a bath, and watch a movie all before 7:30am.” Now, that is the Anne is know! Great post.