My Checklist Addiction/I’m in Recovery
If I could bring back every checklist I’ve ever made in my life there would be no threat of Global Warming, mills in Oregon would reopen and thousands of loggers would be back at work. If I could bring back every checklist I’ve made since I was old enough to write, Rural Oregon Schools would find millions of dollars in the O&C coffers and Oprah’s love life could be tonight’s headline rather than the economy.
Checklists once ruled my day. They told me I had value, responsibility and purpose. I’d get up to a yellow tablet and felt pen. I like those skinny pens that make me feel like I’m Ben Franklin when I write? My lists read like a “Who’s done what” list. I’d start with the important stuff such as feed the goats, fix the barn, and repair a water pipe. But when that failed to fill the void I’d add stuff to the list that I would need to do anyway or have already done (thinks like breath, get the mail and shave).
At the end of the day all those checks tell me whether my day could be listed as a success or not.
Since the campaign ended my desire to make a checklist has not gone away but the joy the checklist once brought my day is gone. I still dabble in checklists. Addictions aren’t easy to turn around. It’s like a drug really. Towards the end putting a few items on the list wasn’t enough to get me high anymore. I needed a scroll to give me that kick. For some of you checklists are fine. You can handle them. It doesn’t create the same desire in you that it unleashes in me. (I say that so you can feel better as you read this and say, “I wonder if I have a checklist addiction?)
When one has no career to fill the value meter you find the urge for a checklist that much greater. People ask me “what I’m doing” and I create a verbal checklist and watch them sigh in relief. It’s as if they know, by the checklist, that I’m not turning into “one of those people”. But the truth is I’m not as productive as I once was, or maybe doing less is really more.
The world Rick Dancer once lived in is disappearing. My career, my false sense of security, and my checklists are harder to find. I will still make checklists now and then. In fact, I need to get to the gym, get the skis out, feed the goats and talk to the house sitter about watching my home. Opps, there I go. See how easily I fall? Okay, I will do all of those things but promise not to put another logger out of work of give Al Gore more to go on and on about (that was a little political I know) and I vow to you this day, if those items do end up on a piece of paper I won’t make a check next to them at the end of the day. Hey, it’s a start.
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The first step is realizing that you have a problem. The following steps should be alphabetized, organized and written down so you can check them off as you acknowledge your success…
Wait…
First item for another list: enjoy not having to make lists right now. Rick, the time is coming when you will be making lists on legal size paper once again. Until then, enjoy. Blessings!!
Lists are kind of like cell phones-a way of making order out of the abstract chaos of life. I am addicted to lists but not phones. List addiction must lead to cell phone addiction. As our cell phones grow smarter might our lists grow dumber? Maybe the list will be in the cell phone or a phone with artificial intelligence can write our lists for us. I write lists but have a nasty habit of never reading them. Pretty odd and chaotic. Ironically, most people I know with a cell phone are the hardest ones to reach. I guess that is when I cross them off my list.
No Greg, That’s the whole Point. I’m trying to get away from the list mentality. Legal pads will be illegal in my home from here on out.
Hi Rick:
I spoke with Aaron at length when I contacted your Campaign Headquarters to offer volunteer time and phone bank work.
I remember seeing you once while you were preparing a tape at Shore Acres, the site that overlooks all the seals on the rocks just off shore. I had always been taken aback by your work and could tell your integrity in person was as transcending as it’s been in your work. You have always been a benefit to the public.
This is the first time I have checked back since speaking with Aaron. A majority of my time went to the Obama Campaign.
Besides my vote and speaking up for you with peers, family, and co-workers, I haled your campaign at every opportunity rather simply shopping or whatever. I do regret that I did not do more.
I’m a solid Democrat and never sway unless the individual would be of remarkable good for the public’s interest. You sir are that rare type of individual that can win the support of all rather Democrat, Republican or Independent when one is given the chance to see you and hear where your coming from.
Best wishes to you and your family from me and mine, Blessings be yours and thank you so much for all you’ve done for us all!
Are you going back to anchor at KEZI?
No that is not part of my plan but thank you for asking.