The problem with unfinished business

Kit and I got into a little argument yesterday about this blog--she made multiple complaints, but the most justified was that so far I haven't really written much about what my unfinished business is, or what I am doing to "finish" it. I've only been posting other editorials and inspirational thoughts. She's absolutely right. Today is Thursday, and I have a number of really pressing things to do today.

The difficulty is that each thing requires a bunch of preliminary effort to actually get to the finishing part. For example, the first thing I need to do today is update the bookkeeping for our local limited liability company, so Kit can send the general ledge to the accountant for tax preparation. I have done the data entry through mid-November, so there's not that much to do, and the task itself won't take more than 20 minutes. However, here's what I have to do before I can even get to the easy part:

• Clear off my office desk--I need to make sure I'm not missing any important receipts. 
• Go through the bag of junk next to my desk--a week or so ago I cleared my desk off by sweeping all the papers and miscellany into a bag to deal with later. This is where the majority of the receipts are. Manage to do this without making a larger mess. 

Then of course, when I'm done, I need to file all the receipts in their envelopes and put them away. That bag is the biggest deterrent. However, I will do it, and the other "to-do's" I've been writing down in my planner every day this week. It's just stressful because most of the tasks have invisible attachments--other, related things I need to do to get it done.

That said, here's my plan for the day:

1. Clear off desk 
2. Go through the bag and search for receipts. Put everything else back in the bag (I don't want to overdo this today). 
3. Do the darned bookkeeping for the local company. 
4. File the leftover paperwork for the company and deliver statements to Kit for the accountant. 
5. Do an hour of satisfying real work--maybe get started on the December books for AP or ST. 
6. Clean out my inbox. This has been haunting me for a couple days. I have 50 emails to get through and address. It will take a long time, since many of them require a 5-10 min followup. 
7. Work on some new programs for 2012 to get the business up and running--maybe some new ad text, work on a webinar curriculum, etc. 
8. Call A (these are all calls I've been postponing, but Kit is right, I just need to get them over with) 
9. Call R 
10. Call J 
11. Call K 

I'll write a short update at the end of the day about how I did. I must confess that I've already completed a few *important* things today: breakfast, finish reading a novel I was halfway through, finish some other reading assignments, and tidy the kitchen. And if I even get halfway through the above list, I will have done an awful lot.

Now, to work!