My sister saw my weekly spread and called it a 'stress log'

She pointed out that my habit tracker had 15 items, and my to-do list for Monday had over 20 tasks. She said it looked like I was just logging my anxiety, not planning my week. I cut both lists down to 5 essential things each, and it's been way better. Has anyone else had to scale back after a layout got too packed?

3 comments

3 Comments

ben4363mo ago

Nah, I'm the opposite. If I don't write everything down, I'll forget it and that's way more stressful. My brain needs to see the whole mess to feel in control.

matthew_wilson223mo ago

See, for me, seeing it all written out just makes it feel bigger and more real. I get overwhelmed looking at a huge list. My brain works better when I just trust it to remember the big stuff and let the small things go. If I forget something minor, it usually wasn't that important anyway.

noahchen1mo ago

But what if you're mixing up two different kinds of forgetting? I used to beat myself up for needing lists until I realized there's a big difference between forgetting something you need to do that week versus forgetting a random thought you had at 3pm last Tuesday. Writing down the deadline stuff actually frees up my brain to handle the small daily stuff without stress. It's like my brain has two hard drives and I used to try to cram everything onto one. So I'm with you on seeing the mess for the important stuff, but I totally get why some people hate lists for everything.