The days here at the editorial office start according to a fairly fixed routine. We drift in, make coffee and tea, discuss the latest developments from the night before (did you know that Johnny de Mol proposed to his Shima, for example) and then we start the day. My desk is opposite Jet's and especially Jet is a master at making extensive to-do lists and I've been picking that up from her lately. “Jesus, I have a lot to do today,” we sigh, and then we eagerly start writing down all those things, which gives an enormous feeling of peace, order, and regularity.

The idea is that we write everything down and as soon as it's done, we cross it out with a marker. Jet is quite good at that, I cheat by doing all the easy or fun things first and then being left with the crappy tasks. But still, peace, order, and regularity, that's what we're here for.

God, I now seem like the worst employee in the world but I can assure you that it's really not that bad.

But that order and regularity is just an illusion. At least for me. Because one of my favorite hobbies is coming up with new ways to keep my completely chaotic life a bit structured, only to then create just as much chaos from those methods. So nowadays I have about 5 different notebooks in which I write my to-do lists, so I never quite know what I was supposed to do again because that one notebook is still at home. I also clutter my list with things I've already done because it feels so good to cross them off. Or I come up with easy things that I can do quickly, put those on my list, and feel like I'm being super productive while “making tea” is not something you typically put on a to-do list.

The question I have is: how do I stick to my to-do lists? How do I ensure that I don't keep getting completely overwhelmed and especially, forget things? Because that's the most annoying part, especially my inbox is full of red flags (also a kind of to-do list) but I can't get to it and so people sometimes have to wait a week for a response. God, I now seem like the worst employee in the world but I can assure you that it's really not that bad (right May? Right?!) but a little more order and a little less chaos; I'm all for it. Anyone have the golden tip? ANYONE?!