Lists are Great but What About Spontaneity

I'm a list guy. I always have a list of things to do. Unfortunately, my to do list is often, OK, always larger than the time I have available to complete the tasks on it. There are simply not enough hours in the day. Yeah - I know. Your reading this thinking, "Yeah, and you have time to write this blog."

Anyhow, I was going about getting my list done today and kept coming up against a messy bookshelf. At one time this bookshelf was very neat but it has long since eroded into a less than organized collection of books, papers, and trophies. On the edge of this particular bookshelf I had been collecting trade show badges. Unfortunately, one day a couple of months ago the whole pile of ganged together badges came crashing to the floor. It seemed that simply looping the next badge over the previous was not a scalable option. At the time of the crash I was out of ideas so I left the badges to lay on the floor, that is, until today.

My wife had the brilliant idea of hanging a chain from the ceiling in the corner of the same room - the home office. This placement was even better than the edge of the bookshelf because we live in an older home and certainly don't have a surplus of space. The chain is especially a good idea because the badges either all have clips or lanyards both of which are easily attached to the chain. The mess on the floor is gone, the badges are neatly stored vertically along the chain in an otherwise unused corner, and now the rest of the bookshelf is clean as well.

I became a bit distracted from my list that I created this morning but I sure feel great about being sponteneous enough to solve the problem at the time the solution presented itself. I really think that sometimes you have to stop trying to solve a problem, let it settle, let your subconscious go to work on it then wammo! At some point you are inspired and have an Aha moment. It is usually sudden, requiring you to act spontaneously. In fact Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and others often tabled problems they faced, took naps or "slept on it" knowing that sleeping didn't mean avoidance, it meant reducing conscious distractions. We probably have a more opportunity to become distracted than in their time. Hmmm - I wonder what Ben or Albert would have to say about Lists and Spontaneity.