A lista vai para sempre

I have always been accustomed to making lists. I think it comes from my mother. I love the pleasure that comes from crossing off something you have previously written down. Grocery lists, packing lists, book lists, to-do lists, pro/con lists--the list (hehe) could go on! My favorite list to make has always been in my planner. I love to write down my plans for the day and then recap and cross the things off that I accomplish. It gives a productive feeling.

But a little less than a year ago, I got the notorious iPhone. It has a calender inside, on which you can put in events and things to do. You can even set an alarm to go off to remind you to do those things--you basic PDA functions. I thought, now that I have this wonderful feature, I can put the old planner away. Technology won over paper. Or so I thought.

After 10 months of trying to adapt to the PDA-style of keeping a planner and making lists, I found that I can't connect with technology in that way! The joy of seeing the daily list shrink as you bring the pen down and run your strike through the individual words was gone. It's like something inside of me was rebelling, saying, "You are better than a computer! Are you letting IT control your life?" This inner rebellion kept me from keeping appointments and making to-do lists and lessened my productivity. (OK, so I can't blame it ALL on the iPhone, but I can put a little blame on the thing.)

I reached the pivot-point last night. I was tired of not crossing things off! Not paying attention to the things I needed to do during the day because of a inner rebellion against technology. No, I did not resolve to give in to this rebellion, it is still alive and well inside of me. But I did pull out my planner. My beloved BYU, recycled paper, academic planner! This morning I sat on my bed and joyously wrote down what I needed to do this week in my planner. That old feeling of productivity rolled back into my heart. The confidence to accomplish crept in. Empowered.

The iPhone is still in use: email checking, banking, facebook stalking, game playing, information getting, texting, phone calling, etc... But never again will I substitute my planner for electric calendars. Not even for the notorious iPhone.

I have already crossed off numerous things from today--I am tempted to write down "go to bed" just so I can cross it off and feel that feeling.

What a great day it was.