Ignoring the TTD (Things to do List) - wise or unwise?

Few pleasures rival a double tick scratched through items on a TTD list; a close competitor, however, is a certain sly look before walking away from the list in an act of supreme defiance.

As I write this, to my right is my TTD list – split into two sections, six items on one side and three on the other.

On the left includes drafting this month’s MTW blog, and on the right is TJPII, i.e. ‘get back to re-writing the second book in The Bait Digger trilogy’; TJP being the initials of the young protagonist, Thomas J. Philpott.

Other items include (i) car wash – done, and (ii) Two Moors payment – not done.

We’re collectively going nuts, aren’t we, with the sporadic emergence of sunshine, daffodils, birdsong? And maybe knocking encrusted mud from trowels, forks and spades, and finding that a morning’s weeding tests the musculoskeletal system more than it should. 

Not quite on a par with the biblical trio of Grace, Mercy, and Peace is found on Mars wrappers: Work, Rest, and Play.

But here’s the question. 

Pick your priorities, the top two or three from the TTD, and I contend that to make much progress requires some dedicated attention to Rest and Play so that the Work, when it comes, can engulf one without wearying the soul.

Rest: today, this included handing over my car to a very cheerful car-washing crew whilst I retreated to a local café for a flat white and warmed through pain au chocolat (no cheesecake on offer), accompanied by today’s Times newspaper and a mobile phone switched off, sat outside in the warm sun;  an hour of utter bliss. I didn’t reach the Sudoku page, or I’d still be there.

Play: not so much today, but in late May/early June I’ll be putting boots on the ground for the Two Moors Challenge. Whilst very-sensible-you might be drinking cocktails on a sunny beach, I will be trudging along poorly marked Dartmoor footpaths with aching feet from Wembury, near Plymouth, reaching Exmoor and Lynton eight days later…i
f all goes well. Not as monumental a task as The Salt Path endeavour, or pilgrims on the Camino, but I’m hoping it’ll be fun and meet some other travellers.

Work: later this evening, I’m being interviewed about my (debut!) novel, The Bait Digger, and the video may make its way into the public domain via my website, FB, and Instagram…and at the forthcoming book launch (on Saturday March 21st, at Cheddar Baptist, 10am to 12.30. If you’re nearby, it would be lovely to meet you!).

So…whatever your writing ambitions and energy levels, man shall not live by work, sweat, and tears alone, but by grabbing every opportunity to ignore the TTD list – especially when the sun is shining, the tide is in, and any brain fog needs clearing.

Wisdom? Can be summed up as Work, Rest, and Play, or, if you prefer, grace, mercy, and peace.