WoMo Word #8: Eternalist

August 15th, 2010, posted by Aimee, Tags: Juggling & Struggling,Time Is A Four Letter Word

Eternalist:  noun; denotes the neverending “To Do” list of any working mom.

The urge usually hits around mid-day on Sunday. While others are enjoying the sunshine by the pool or relaxing with friends and family, most working moms begin to develop an almost uncontrollable urge to get out the pen and paper (or pull up the outlook calendar on her phone) and start jotting down the inevitable to-do list for the week ahead. “Oh god, what time’s that meeting with the new client tomorrow? When did he say the deadline for that RFP was? Wait, isn’t Braden’s dentist appointment Friday, right at the same time as my practice group outing?” The thoughts of commitments and conflicting appointments washes over you, obliterating the joy of what’s supposed to be one of your only two days of leisure in a whole week.

If I can control myself until the early evening to pull out the “list,” the rush of pending doom is still inescapable when I finally pull open the calendar and grab a pen to plot out the days to follow. The truly pathetic thing is how many carryovers there are from day to day … and those that never seem to get crossed off. For example, “Rearrange your asset allocation in the 401(k)” has been on my personal list for 18 months now, and “Start Weight Watchers again” somehow appears day after day after day. It’s also amazing how many slots everyday are filled simply with meetings. There are more meetings about things we are supposed to be doing at work than work being done it seems at times.

Absolute bliss for me as I imagine it to be for just about any WoMo is the thought of an entirely list-free existence for some set period of time, in which the only worries are somebody else’s and the only item I “have” to do are those obvious to me without writing anything down. Ahhhh.

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