Sage advice that I "know" but rarely execute fully. thanks!

One comment on to do lists: I am a to do list maniac and have 20 years experience with countless variations. For me I have found that mentally it is helpful to put things onto lists, so I do this many times per day... I have a "quick" list where items just get jammed as soon as they occur to me.

40% of these times get done directly from that list soon after (that day or soon). 40% get moved to another list (I have a dozen or so lists like 'personal' or 'calls' or 'work'). Then items get culled from those lists if they do not get done in a week or three.

The key to keeping anxiety lower is to keep the list lengths short. The truth is you are not going to get to 20 items on any of these lists. you're just not. So no harm in moving this to another list called "Later" and that list is where items go to die. Sure some items do come back from that list, but mostly they don't. More likely that issue will come to the fore again and I will create a new to do item to do that thing. Or it is just OBE (overcome by events) and never comes back.

The key is to weekly cull your lists. Usually on any given week I only have a top 2-4 times on a list which is slated to be done that week. All the rest of the items are pushed down for later. This makes the week feel achievable... because it is, you limited your tasks.

Final point: Build a list each day IS helpful. It focuses you on most important items. Just keep its length reasonable. if you are never finishing your list, you are putting too much on it.