By Ron Sinclair

I’ve tried to do away with my “TO DO” list. I figure that in retirement, life shouldn’t be so demanding that being chained to a list is necessary.

Lists have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My dad taught me how. I began with a simple list of things I needed to accomplish each week. Then I learned to use the Day Timer system complete with its own binder and specialty paper sheets with holes that would only fit in the binders that cost only $29.95 and up. From there I learned to make a list of long term goals that would become part of my 5 year plan. Then of course I had to create a separate list designed to help me reach those 5 year goals. After a while it became obvious that my life was not just about daily chores. It was about work goals, and personal financial goals, and home improvement goals, and if I was to really do life right, I had to make a list of self-development goals. I made a lot of lists.

One day Marcia subtly said that nowhere on my lists was there room for family. When I tried to explain that all of these things would make the family’s lives better, I got that look that only someone you truly love and who truly loves you in return can give. I stewed for a while, but then quietly made a list of goals entitled Family. If “plan your work and work your plan” was a good thing, I was surely on the right track by believing I should live by the saying “plan your life and work your plan.” What’s one more list?

Then I had to make a list of target activities to achieve each goal. But of course with so many goals, I couldn’t depend upon a single list to be effective. I had to make detailed lists for each goal. It was cumbersome, but it made sense and I worked my backside off to make sure I crossed off every single item on every single list. Anything not finished on time would of course be added to a new list.

So from my early 20’s until the beginning of my 70’s, I lived with lists as guides for each day. I still have them now, but they are much simpler. The Grocery list makes certain we forget nothing when we venture into town. The Shop list makes certain that I don’t forget to work on a project I promised a neighbor or to pick up certain necessities from suppliers. The Honey Do list is one that Marcia doesn’t use often. But anything that appears on it becomes an immediate priority. And then of course there is the calendar which controls our lives now because it tells us the dates and times of our upcoming doctors’ appointments. On the plus side, the calendar also tells us upcoming events that we don’t want to miss. So I guess the calendar is a kind of list.

I still don’t have as much time to sit and dream and think through things as I want. As I walk around the farm, I see a lot of things that I want to do and that need to be done, and I try to work on the most urgent of those tasks. And I confess to fighting the urge to make lists with the same fury as I did before. But I enjoy breaking the chains that bound me to them for each and every moment of each and every day.

The freedom is exhilarating, but also a little scary. Our only long-term goals now are to live a good, healthy, balanced life. But I confess to feeling a little guilty for drifting through my days without a set of tasks listed prominently on a long list, demanding my attention.

I might even go fishing.

© Ron Sinclair, 2026. Sinclair is a retired church musician and solo performer. Sinclair writes about aging, retirement, ‘the church,’ his farm, family and anything else he considers of interest. Price Lake Photo by Michael Barrick.“List” Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peterson Unsplash.