to-do lists

...to-do lists say so much about life style, mindset, priorities, things people linger about etc. Currently I am collecting to-do lists from people of all walks of life, which I hope will allow this project to offer glimpses into different lives, and the myriad ways of sorting out, organizing and managing those lives.

So far, the lists I have received range from nitty-gritty details of everyday tasks to utopian dreams, from new years resolutions to lists of places to grab a lunch at, short term, long term, professional, personal, loose, micromanagerial laundry lists of all sorts.

I am especially interested in the contrast between how we talk about our upcoming exciting "projects" and present ourselves in relationship to what we do in social situations, versus what unsexy mundane stuff we really end up doing in our day to day lives.

In our culture not only is there an element of anxiety to perform but also an important element is the urge to keep oneself busy, almost in a "I'm busy therefore I am" kind of way. At times having nothing to do might be as stressful as spreading oneself thin. While we present ourselves/yearn to be the right kind of busy, we perhaps spend more time just being a busy body.

We feel stressed out with the burden of tasks we have to perform and then stress out some more trying to finding ways to relax. Whether researching the best yoga class, creating lists of things to do or places to visit on our time "off" we become what we do... often times forgetting to "make time" to stop and smell the roses.