Your To-Do List Can Chill—I’m Older Than All of It
Pep Talk from Ossie
(Decorative Skull, Reluctant Therapist, Unofficial Patron Saint of Burnout Recovery)
Ah, look at you standing there frozen in front of the mighty To-Do List.
Nothing but unchecked boxes and fake urgency. But the looks of your frown I'm guessing that you believe that if you fail to conquer that darn list today, the universe might revoke your worth, dignity, pride, and the future you've been dreaming about since you were three.
Listen, I’ve been around since the first papyrus planner, and let me tell you something: you don’t owe your soul to an endless list of checkboxes.
Let’s be clear—being overwhelmed doesn’t equate to being lazy. It's just something that happens to these beings called humans.
You know what happens when people ignore burnout? They explode. Or worse, they start monologuing worse than my zombie cousin Fred. Dude never stops talking.
If your brain feels stuck on endless buffering today, just know that you have this illness I like to call data overload. It’s a very tricky thing to cure. Some would say it involves finishing your to-do list, but a much faster approach is burning that darn thing right before a nice vacation. Preferably one with endless snacks.
So if you're lying there thinking, “I should be doing more,”
I’d like to offer a counter-spell:
One inhale.
One exhale.
Put the to-do list in a drawer and hide under a blanket.
There you go! That was the most amazing thing I’ve seen all morning.
You are not falling behind—you’re just walking at your own undead pace.
So let’s make a new list, just for today:
Breathe
Hydrate
Stretch something (even if it’s just your eyebrows)
Ignore one obligation with the absolute confidence of a very tired skull
You’re doing enough.
Not because some list said so. But because you’re still showing up, even on the days when your spark dims down to a flicker.
In case no one told you today...flickers still count.
Now back under the blanket you go. To-do list can wait.
With Love, Ossie
(P.S. I’ve been meaning to clean out my closet since the Renaissance—I promise whatever is on your list can survive a little delay. )
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