Never Enough Time

There never seems to be enough time to get things done these days. No matter how much I get done in one day, I never seem to be able to make a dent in the great "To Do" list.

I was in bed staring at the ceiling one night, when my wife asked, "What's the matter?" I answered that I was trying to make some sort of priority list in my head.

"You need to stop worrying about it," she said. "Make a list tomorrow and then you can choose one or two things to get done every day, checking them off as you go."

In theory, this sounds like a great idea. In reality, the list quickly became six smaller lists of related objectives. Once again overwhelmed, I scrapped the idea altogether.

There's a scene in The Marx Brothers' movie "Go West," where Chico and Harpo are knee-deep in separate holes, digging for gold. Everytime Chico throws a shovel full of dirt out of his hole, Harpo does the same, only he's throwing his dirt in Chico's hole. Chico can't help but notice that he's getting nowhere, no matter how furiously he digs. I used to think this scene was funny, now I fast-forward right through it.