10 Ineffective Steps Toward Getting Organized

original illustration credit: the wonderful Allie Brosh

1. Notice that the number of things you need to do is starting to get overwhelming.

2. Decide to make a to-do list.

3. Debate for 40 minutes over the merits of Excel v. Word.

4. Research effectiveness of each. Decide you're better in Word, even though Excel looks more professional. Create a table in Word. Realize you should have picked Excel.

5. Find an "all the things" image for the top of the page. The meme's kind of outdated but every good to-do list still needs this.

6. Hunt for 30 minutes for the perfect coordinating font.

7. Decide Arial 12 is less distracting than that very cool and nearly illegible handwriting font you found.

8. Tweet a warning against procrastination.

9. Call your to-do list prototype done. After three hours, it's finally perfect.

10. Completely forget what you meant to put on it.

11. (Bonus step.) Scrap the to-do list and just document the whole process in a blog post instead. Blogging was one of those things you meant to do anyway.