My father once told me he’d learned over time that to-do lists are kind of like the tides: sometimes it’s high tide, and sometimes it’s low tide, but he’d always been trying to reach no water, and he’d eventually realized that just wasn’t going to happen.

I’ve been thinking about that of late, whenever I see various ‘things to do during self-isolation’ lists getting emailed around, or people complaining on Twitter about being bored out of their minds.  Because, on my end, even having cleared my schedule of every outside-the-apartment appointment and obligation, I’m still making it to the end of each day feeling totally behind on everything I could and should be doing.

That said, I’ve also been extremely productive.  I just have so much more that I want to get done.  And that doesn’t even include the less urgent and obligated stuff, like catching up on the pile of books I’m hoping to read, or the list of movies I’d like to watch, or just taking some time to stare out the window and reflect on the big picture of life.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I still don’t really have a fixed schedule.  I’m hoping to get that figured out shortly, adding a more formal start and end to my workday, making sure I observe an actual weekend.  Anything that adds some regularity and contour to my self-isolated life.  This whole thing could stretch on for quite a while, and as much as I’d like to come out the other end with a list of accomplishments, I’m even more concerned about getting there with my sanity still intact.