March 13, 2017
No, Mike didn’t abandon his in-the-mind and on-paper to-do lists. Sheilah came up with a better solution.
Mike: Like most farmers, my to-do list always seems to be about 100 pages long. For the most part, it was all in my head.
Sheilah always encourages me to write that list or lists down on paper. She says if I write it down and can see it, then physically cross it off, I might be more organized and feel like I’m actually getting something done — not just spinning my wheels.
So, one January morning, I sat down and began to work on a list of things to get done this winter. No surprise; it was pretty long.
Unfortunately, I got a pretty nasty cold right after Christmas that I just couldn’t seem to shake. Yup, that’s my excuse. Nothing was getting checked off, and I kept thinking of things to add. Seeing everything I had to do written down on paper made me feel a little stressed out.
Sheilah: Mike was going on and on about how he wasn’t getting anything done. So I took a look at everything he wanted to achieve.
Everything on that list definitely needed to be done. I just wasn’t sure it all needed done before spring. Replacing a roof in January didn’t seem all that practical to me. After all, you never know what winter weather’s going to do.
Mike: She had a point. I had put everything on the list that I needed to do — just not in the order the work needed to be done. She suggested I redo my list — this time making categories and prioritizing the items. I did, and it looked a lot more manageable. In fact, I’ve been crossing things off left and right ever since.
Sheilah: Having a list helps him be more organized and a better planner for day-to-day operations. I used to ask: “What’re you going to do today?” And he’d reply: “I’m not sure.”
Now that he has his list written out, I always get a solid answer! At the rate tasks are being checked off, he’ll be ready for spring in no time! Not sure about that roofing job, though.
Sheilah and Mike Reskovac farm near Uniontown, Pa. Catch all their Two Hearts, One Harvest blog at AmericanAgriculturist.com.
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