Can I tell you a secret? I’m terrified. All day today I’ve been scared shitless.

Anxiety keeps asking if I can come out and play. Panic keeps jumping out from behind chairs and stuff saying “boo.” What a douche.

I have so much I have to do and so much I long to do that all I really want to do is curl up on my bed and sleep for a while. Like till it all goes away.

So I sit down, get out a pen, and make three lists. First list, everything I have to do. I mean everything. All the big stuff and all the little. Second list, the list of steps necessary to accomplish each goal. Third, the list of steps from list two that I can reasonably do today.

As in, five. I list no more than five things. Even if I could do ten. Even if I feel I must do seven. Five is the limit.

This list is of the important stuff. Making dinner, getting gas or checking if the new season of The C Word is available on iTunes aren’t on this list. (Have you seen that show? OMG I cried at the finale… anyway. What were we talking about?)

The point of the only-five-things list is not to get what needs doing done right away. It’s to establish a habit of getting something done today. Finish the Five. (Catchy, right? Yeah. Dig it.)

Making a list of the five things I’m required to do means once they’re done I have permission to relax. If you slip a little extra in there it’s ok. (You just thought “that’s what she said,” didn’t you? You’re so immature.)

We are all trying to live life at light speed, and it’s killing us. Time to slow down. Get those goals done, maybe faster, by slowing down. If our attention is focused on the one tiny thing we’re doing now as opposed to the five hundred things we have to do this week, we’ll get it done faster. And more accurately.

And then, after each task is finished, pay attention to your breath.

Take one minute, just one. Sixty seconds more or less. Notice your breath. Close your eyes. Pick one sound out of all the sounds around and focus on it. Notice how you will begin to feel calmer. Sixty seconds, you’re ready for the next item on the list.

Finish the five. Then have a sit-down. Take a nap, maybe. Relax. When you die, you’ll still have unchecked boxes on your to-do list. The point isn’t finishing it all. It’s making sure that we’ve checked off a lot of the important things. Like spending time with loved ones and creating something that outlasts us. Little things like that, yes?

Finish the Five.