0 50jahre 1 Wind 2 Morgen 3 Sim 4 Und da 5 Komplexe 6 Lügen 7 Deppen 8 Rand 9 Links 10_Schwer 11_Gast Everyone has their own way of keeping to-do lists, or no way at all, which is also a way. Everyone should be happy with how they do it. Happiness could come from actually doing what you want to do. Or it could also come from the list getting longer and longer. The latter would be a bit weird, but if it makes you happy...

My principle is to create notes in a card index box. Every time something occurs to me, I write ‘Tomorrow’ as the heading. And then I write down what needs to be done ‘tomorrow’. So far, so good.

The nice thing about it (for me) is that when I look at it tomorrow, it will still say ‘Tomorrow’, and I don't feel any pressure to do it. And then I look through all the ‘Tomorrows’ and if I like something and feel like doing it, I do it today. The fact that I might feel like doing something requires me to set my own rule that I don't have to do it ‘today’, but could also do it tomorrow. Now you could argue that I know that, which is why I wrote it down. That's absolutely right. And yet it works for me. I'm tricking myself in a pleasant way, so to speak.

Once I've done something, I cross it off. The piece of paper is then still good for other entries. And so, when I think of something I need to do, I can look through the things I've already done and feel very motivated by the fact that I've already done so much, even though it was scheduled for ‘tomorrow’. So I'm much more diligent than I give myself credit for. ...

Yes, I know the old saying ‘tomorrow, tomorrow, just not today ...’. (Translator's note: "Morgen, morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle faulen Leute" is the original text of the saying in German. Although the translation into English also rhymes (... do all the lazy people say), the translator does not know whether the saying itself is well known, and therefore whether the dots in the quotation are sufficient or not.) But first of all, I admit that I like to be lazy, according to the motto: What's the point? And secondly, this saying is one of a whole series of ‘good German aphorisms’ that can still be read on the walls of some old schools, such as ‘People are like diamonds, only through polishing do they become beautiful.’ And I can only shake my head at this kind of pedagogy and prefer to watch the beautiful film ‘Dead Poets Society’ or ‘Feuerzangenbowle’.

And there's someone else I'd like to quote, Herman van Veen from the song ‘Bis jemand mich hört’ (Until someone hears me): ‘Just one more little word – for those who listen carefully – I didn't understand a thing – I'm just pretending.’