The Done List: Recording your wins

We all have lists.

The to do lists. The unending, rolling collection of things we have to do or need to do or want to do. The one that seems to get longer, no matter how many things we check off.

First, I’m hella ADHD. Second, I’m busy. I flit through my day, hyper-focusing on inappropriate tasks and cramming an insane amount of things into every hour… or bumping into walls and getting nothing done at all. There is no in-between.

At the end of the day, I found myself focusing on the things I did not get done. It felt heavy.

It felt like failure.

And then something happened. I recently had a conversation with some friends and said something like “I didn’t get anything at all done today.” Then somehow, I started thinking about that statement, and I made a list of my day:

• Made two school lunches.
• I did the dishes.
• Took care of the dogs.
• Posted on my author pages.
• Did a couple loads of laundry.
• Swept the floor.
• The kids are dressed, fed, and at school.
• Their teeth are brushed. I think.
• I picked up groceries.

That’s a “nothing” day. It seems ridiculous when I think about it that way. The truth is, we all do a hundred things in a day to keep our worlds running, and it’s worth acknowledging.

So now at the end of the day, I take some time to scribble down my Done List. That way, instead of ending my day worrying about everything I didn’t get done, I take a minute to look at my day. And if rest, reading, writing, and quality time with people I care about happened, they get included too.

It is all valuable and it all makes the Done List.

Honestly, a lot of times, the Done List looks different than the mental To-Do list that I had in the morning, but that’s okay. As a result, I put words on paper, stop the self-flagellation (okay, at least mitigate it a bit), and appreciate the addition to my day.

Try it! Let me know what you think!

About the Writer: Allie Gravitt is a mom of 3 and lives in metro Atlanta with a house full of animals and plants. Her second poetry collection, Killing Ghosts, will be available this month. Get her debut, prisonbreaks, on Amazon now. Follow Allie’s writing journey on TikTok and Instagram.