priorities

So you're stressed, maybe. Or maybe you're one of the lucky few who know exactly what to do and life gets handed to them on a silver platter, yay congratulations, if that's the case you wouldn't be here.

One thing that really helped early on, before I sat down and talked to Mom about it, was a to-do list. It wasn't your regular, run-of-the-mill to-do list bc those are more day-to-day (sorry about all the n-dashes ik it's annoying but it's grammatically correct so I can't help it sorry-not-sorry).

My to-do list was a list of things I wanted to do, to get done, but on a long-term basis. I also made daily to-do lists, and those were great, they sometimes helped, but the one that helped the most was the one I made where I wrote down all the big things I wanted to get done, and kept them on that piece of paper. Because sometimes you're so overwhelmed with stuff you have to get done that you can't keep track of which thing to do first and whether you've forgotten something or not. So, the list I have currently is the following, without prioritizing:

- do the ACT
- make ACT appt
- call DMV, set up road test appt
- take road test
- start working at Sweetness/Starbucks
- hair appointment
- take driving safety course
- call Sweetness/Starbucks and ask abt working
- get license

and it sometimes stresses me out when I don't know what I need to get done - bc all I know is that I have a lot to do but I don't have a specific idea of what, or when to get what done. So it is amazing help to put down everything I feel like I need to get done. And after I write down everything, it's so helpful bc then I can see what stuff is most important, or what I need to do first. And then I can make a new, prioritized list:

- take driving safety course
- make ACT appt
- call DMV, set up road test appt
- call Sweetness/Starbucks
- take ACT
- start work at Sweetness/Starbucks
- take road test
- get license
- hair appt

These are all the big things I want to accomplish. And because it's prioritized now (feel free to ask Mom about your list, and see if it's prioritized the right way. I'm going to do that with mine, but sometimes you can tell - for eg, you probably don't need anyone to tell you a hair appt is the smallest priority while scheduling is huge), I feel like I have a handle on what to do next, what the next step is in trying to get my life together. When you have a list together of what to do from most to least important, then all you have to do is go down the list and check things off.

A year ago, the list looked like this, w/o prioritizing:

- take permit test
- get license
- get permit
- ACT
- drive, get hours
- hair appt
- apply somewhere for work
- start work

With prioritizing:

- take permit test
- get permit
- drive, get hours
- ACT
- work

And because of the prioritizing list, after a year it's been trashed and a new one has started. Know why it's been trashed? Because I now had new goals. Why did I have new goals, because this is what it looked like when I threw it away:

- take permit test
- get permit
- drive, get hours
- ACT
- work

I still had the goal of the ACT and work to, like, work towards (ha-ha-ha that's not a good pun so plz don't laugh at it), but I had finished the other stuff and needed a new list so that I could start fresh and not take up space w/ stuff already finished.

I'm not saying a list is the be-all end-all and I'm not claiming you'll get more done that way, but I am claiming that it will make you less stressed and feel like you're making progress, and moving forward. That's the most important thing, is that no matter what small thing you do, that it will help you move forward. Even doing small things that don't seem like much help to growing up will actually help - staying on top of schwk even while you're stressing about driving or the ACT. Trust me, staying on top of schwk will make you feel like at least you're on top of something and something is always better than nothing, in this case.

So whatever you do, make sure it's helping you finish your goals - that you aren't wasting hours on the computer playing games or reading piles of books bc you have nothing else to do with your summer. Heck, even if you're only 13 you can still be moving towards goals you'll have when you're 16. You can be looking into driving and what you have to do, maybe take some practice tests for the permit test you'll be taking. Maybe go ahead and watch the safety course in driving (tho at age 13 that's a lil bit premature).

There's always something you can be doing and sitting around while other people live and breathe and move around you is a dumb way to spend your time.

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If you have any questions for me, we live in the same house so just talk to me in person. And if we don't live in the same house anymore, ig you can leave a comment but I'll see it better if you just email me - mairigreer@gmail.com

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