Well that was fun. A weekend lying on the sofa in varying degrees of pain as my bump exerts its ever-growing pressure on a range of ligaments, arteries and organs. I read ("Childbirth Without Fear" by Grantly Dick-Read, written in 1942, still relevant, except perhaps for the advice on how to suspend your stockings during your confinement) and knitted (bobble hat, in the round, drove me crazy, never tackling socks), but it wasn't particularly enjoyable. I should have sat at my desk - I have an excellent office chair which seems to make everything settle down. But no, the siren call of leisure smashed me into the rocks. Hey ho.

Anyway, whilst lying there, I was musing on lists. You know my view on them - I think lists are a very fine thing indeed. Life wouldn't run at all well without them. But I thought about a terrible flaw in a life of lists, and it is this: if it's not on the list, it doesn't get done.

Sounds simple enough to fix - put everything you want to do on the list and it'll get done. Easy, right? Well, it dawned on me that there are certain things that require a bit of inspiration, an elemental spark. I got to worrying that if I don't have a task on my list that says 'spend 30 minutes coming up with genius new ideas', that it won't happen.

There's no point in saying 'don't be so dependent on the list.' Too late. So I resolve to put things on my list that break me away from my list for a while. Today, for instance, I have down to 'analyse the way I make print quantity decisions'. Yes, I KNOW, boring, but it's the only example I have to hand of stepping back, looking at something from a new angle, and not getting bogged down in the day to day minutiae of stuff.

Also, one last big up for lists. They take care of all the run of the mill, often repetitive bits and bobs that always need doing, and by taking care of them it's more likely that you'll have more time and space in your head to spend pondering the really interesting things in work and life. Like WHAT can that baby possibly be leaning on to make THAT part of me hurt so much?