Enlisting the help of lists to get through life

LISTS have become my raison d’etre. To an obsessive degree. My memory has been questionable for years. All through the pandemic I’ve been watching repeats without realising it’s a repeat. I’m beginning to think I only need one TV channel. If I watch something one week, I won’t remember it by the next week. Maybe it’s partially attributable to the fact that I’m simultaneously playing Scrabble on my phone.

It’s the same with books. I’m ordering books online and it’s only when I’ve read the first chapter that I realise I’ve read it before. It’s all very disappointing. I’ll have to limit my purchases to new releases.

So I’ve needed lists for some time, but now with all this spare time they have become paramount to ensuring my day is filled up. I sit and think of things I can add on every day.

I go for a walk every day but I still put it on the list — just in order to be able to tick it off. The same with ‘water plants’. I know I have to water them every second day. There’s no need to put them on a list. I put everything on a separate line to make it look as if I have a monumental task ahead of me. ‘Wash hair. Put on wash. Hoover. Dust. The latter two tend to get moved on to the next day. For weeks. And I forget to add things like ‘put out bin’ so end up with an overflowing bin for two weeks. I had time to make a Covid-19 box. Hand sanitisers, face masks, Dettol sprays, bacteria wipes. All in a box. The actions of someone with nothing else to do and is losing their marbles.

Soon I’ll be adding things like ‘make bed’, ‘go upstairs’, ‘go to loo’ (that’s a vital one). Then I’ll definitely have to go for help.