I was chatting with a friend at the wee hours of the morning the other day, and we discussed "to-do lists." Now, I am the most scatterbrained person you'll meet due to the wide range of responsibilities I have on a day-to-day basis. Because of this, a while ago I decided it would be a Good Thing to make a list of things to do every morning and get them done one by one.

The first day, this new system worked perfectly! I had prioritized my list and finished all the tasks I wanted to complete ... I was on FIRE!

For some odd reason though, as the days went by, I found my productivity simmered. Was I being lazy? Upon close inspection of my "list," I discovered with much horror that I was adding useless items to the list for the sole purpose of crossing them out.

The original list might of looked like this:

• Create a new XHTML/CSS transitional template
• E-mail client about clarifying some specs
• Fix the image uploading bug
• Engage in promiscuous activities with many hot single ladies

A very solid list of quality tasks. But by day four, the list began to look like this:

• Create a new XHTML/CSS transitional template
• E-mail client about clarifying some specs
• Go to Blockbuster and return DVD
• Shower
• IM yush about lunch
• Check e-mail
• Clean desk
• Fix the image uploading bug
• Engage in promiscuous activities with many hot single men

Do you see what happened? I kept the same list of things to do, but I added marginal items that really didn't need to be listed. For example, shower. Showering?! Is this a big deal? What about checking e-mail? As if i would forget to do this.

My id was adding items to this list to satisfy my ego, and my ego probably was going along with it to fool myself. The worst part is that because the list looked long, doing those few marginal tasks made my days seem productive!

I tell you this now, but I am my own worst enemy. After this fiasco, I stopped keeping a daily list.