The Death of To-Do Lists?

I’m a huge fan of to-do lists. I’ve used them for many years to organize my thoughts and define what still needs to get done. A good to-do list is almost meditative, dare I say, a writing form unto itself. As an artist/creative type, I was trained to keep sketchbooks. But in more recent years, I’ve found that those books contain fewer sketches and more project to-dos than anything else.

However, lately, the lists have been failing me…or I’ve been failing them. It seems as though whatever I put on a to-do list lately is guaranteed to not happen. At best, I may get to cross off 1 out of 5 items (any to-do lister knows that crossing things off is terribly satisfying). Those aren't good odds. Those numbers start having me thinking in terms of jinxes, hexes, bad planning, or just bad luck. 

Or, that it’s time to work without any lists at all.