The To Do List

I love a list.

I make lists all the time.

This might explain why The To-Do List by Mike Gayle is one of my all time most favourite reads. I've read it a few times, most recently in tha last couple of weeks. In fact, I finished it this very morning of the train.

 

If you like lists and sometimes feel (like me) that you are pretending to be a grown up then maybe this is the book for you. And if that isn't you, read it anyway. It's a wonderful story about life and growing and making friends and doing better and generally getting stuff done to make stuff better.

 

Basically, Mike Gayle decides that he is not a proper adult and that he should spend the rest of the year (up until his next birthday) attempting to cross everything off his todo list that is holding him back from true adulhood. The list ranges from clean up using up 2 year old compost to playing make believe.

 

I decided that I fancied a reread and with my birthday coming up, what better thing to read than about a man embarking on a challenge to spruce up his grown up life inspired by his birthday? I could think of nothing so I dived in and remembered how much I love this book. I love it because Mike isn't naturally good at getting stuff done.

He isn't organised.

He does procrastinate.

He even gives up on the list a few times.

And this is why I love it. It's me! I started by saying that I love making lists and I do. But whether I actually ever get through them and tick everything off is another matter. A matter that is rather sad in that inevitably. I get distracted and bored and decide that I don't need to do that thing after all.

 

At the start of this year I made a list of things I wanted to do. Not a 1277 long item like Mike's but it was over 100 items long, by March I had pretty much abandoned it. But now, after my reread, I feel inspired to tackle it again. To make a 'What I'll Do This Year' list and attack it.

 

Can I do this? Probably not.

Do I want to try? Very much so.

 

Excuse me while I try to remember everything I've been putting off and write it down.

 

Love Charlotte x