I recently stumbled across these notepads:

I’ve always been a devoted list-maker, but my lists are often overly ambitious.  You know how people (and every magazine that’s ever addressed the subject) say that when you can’t sleep, you should make a list of what you need to do in the morning?  For me, this tactic is disastrous.  Instead of clearing my mind, I wind up thinking up every possible thing I could do the next day.  Pretty soon, I’m stressed about tasks that ten minutes earlier I hadn’t even thought about.

For me, the processes of list-making and brainstorming are too closely analogous.

But I do write a list for myself every morning, and over the years I’ve fine-tuned my system.  I keep separate lists of goals for each day and each week, and I denote the crucial, important, have-to-get-done tasks, so they stand out from the others.  Lately, I’ve even started keeping a separate, ongoing “bucket list” of things I’d like to get to someday.  I usually check off a few here and there over the course of each month.

But despite all that fine-tuned list-making, there’s still something remarkably appealing about these notepads.  What would it feel like to wake up in the morning and assign myself just one thing?

{Note: “I will do one thing today” pads are available from Pretty Bitter here if you’re interested.  I don’t own these notepads myself (though I’m seriously considering placing an order), and I wasn’t paid or perked or asked to write this post, nor do I have any relationship with this stationer.}