I am a relatively accomplished individual. I can drive a car. I have a degree. I can even change the flapper on a toilet, a task I just learned last week. Yet, there are many times when I just can’t seem to complete a task. I’m not talking about big stuff like when I left medicine to get pregnant and raise children. Residency was the best thing I never finished. Deep down and on the surface I know that was a great choice for me. The tasks that I am referring to are much more mundane. Things like folding the laundry, cleaning the kitchen, organizing the bathroom. Those are the tasks that always seem to be left ninety percent done and ten percent meh. Driving this morning, I was trying to divine what my next resolution should be when it occurred to me that completing a task all the way would really help my state of mind so shortly after our move. I find myself gathering projects after projects that aren’t quite finished and I am ready to start checking some things off the list.
This resolution is not even on the list because, truth be told, although I had planned to have all fifty-two resolutions all written out for the choosing, in the end I didn’t get a chance to finish it. Leaving a few empty slots for things that just come up might be a good choice. All this introspection is bound to unearth some doozies.
Yesterday, my finish it goal was to finish setting up the kids bathroom. It’s sounds like a small thing but this room needed a fair bit of work. The toilet ran, the faucets leaked, and the lights simply didn’t turn on. I don’t want to make it sound like I did all those handy repairs but when that work was done, it needed to be cleaned out and some hanging hooks and fixtures changed. Finally, the kids needed some hooks to hang towels and all the finishing cleaning and arranging. I started the room early in the morning and when I got off track I tried to refocus. It is so easy when you are moving in to get lost in a sea of clutter. I unpacked a battery that I know was dead but I can’t throw it away I have to recycle it. Where is the battery recycling center going to be? It used to be in that three drawer set that is now in the kids room. I bet that set would be great to hold legos. I should go put all the legos in there right now. You get my point. I stuck with the bathroom until it was done. It was wonderful. I actually started this post yesterday morning and wanted to write it last night. Alas, it didn’t get finished till today.
lesliepurchase 
This is a good resolution. We would benefit from applying a little more focus to our tasks. The trap of multi-tasking is that you could work all day on a number of tasks and not complete any single one.
Keeping focused can be difficult as we are often torn away from a task by many temptations – kids – the phone – a nice day – anything will do some times. But in all seriousness, I rely on lists as crossing off a task brings me a feeling of accomplishment.