This week’s guest post comes from Amanda, one of my Wisconsin readers. I came across her blog, Tales From The Crib, and her list of “100 Things” caught my attention. Being the list-aholic that I am, I had to check it out, and now I’m glad she’s agreed to share this courageous concept with all of you. Whether we scribble our “100 Things” down in a notebook, share it on our blog or Facebook page, or just keep it in the back of our minds we all have our own list of “100”somewhere.

Lists. We’ve all got them in some form. Playlists. Guest lists. Checklists. If you’re one of those highly organized people, I’m guessing the “To-Do List” is right up there at the top.

Now, I’m probably just like a million other people out there running around from one errand, responsibility, event, etc. to another, but sooner or later, I find myself going crazy thinking about all the things I need to do. Enter the LIST. As soon as I can get my hands on a piece of paper, I write down whatever it is that I’m thinking about. We’re out of milk. Write it down so I’ll remember next time I go to the store. It’s sort of like my therapy. I need to schedule the dog’s vet appointment. Write it on the day’s to-do list. Once it is clearly written down on that little piece of paper, I can think straight again. I have gained focus and established a plan of attack to accomplish all those things milling about in my head.

Years ago, I used to have all the time in the world to take care of those items on my to-do list. But now having “grown-up” responsibilities (job, house, marriage, dog, and an almost two-year old daughter), I’m hard-pressed to find even a spare moment to take care of all those things that creep up on me. Taking a cue from the infamous “Bucket List” and the “101 Things in 1001 days“, I made my own version of a list, calling it my “100 Things“ list. Trying to be practical (and realistic), I tailored my list to suit my needs. You won’t see “Climb Mt. Everest before I’m 40” on my list. No, my list is more of a ”Put my daughter’s first-year pictures in an album (hopefully before I’m 40)” kind of list.

For me, it wasn’t enough to simply compose a list. I needed some kind of accountability, a challenge. So I posted it on my blog. Now, some stuff is rather personal (weight-loss goals, financial stuff), but I was trying to keep it real and by airing some of my dirty laundry, I’m more motivated to accomplish those things and check them off.

The key for me was to add some fun stuff to my list and a few things that I knew I could accomplish rather easily. Crossing those first few things off the list really got me pumped to see what else I could do. Since the whole point of making this list was to ease the burden of always thinking about what needs to be done, I put some demanding things on there, things I knew weren’t going to come easily (like clean out the basement). Somehow, the simple act of adding it to my list did wonders for my mental state. No longer did I sit and ruminate about it. That chore, task or duty was out of my head and on paper and I was eventually going to tackle it.

I’ve checked off about 60% of my list to date. I’m not in any race to finish, but hoping to accomplish my goal of completing the list by September 2010 (a year from when I started it). Who knows, once I tackle these 100 things, I may have some spare time to add “Climb Mt. Everest” to my next list … or maybe not.

Read Amanda’s “100 Things” list and other gems on her blog – Tales From the Crib.