Today I tick many things off of my to-do list...

There's something about peace of mind and a stress-free day job that makes me oh-so productive. I think I've fed my blog monster more in the past week than I have in the past year. Just this week:

I researched and wrote a blog post (not one of my own).

I paid my car taxes online (and remembered that inspection is due this month, sort of amazing for me since I don't pay attention to the stickers on my own windshield and never had to get my car inspected when I lived in Charleston).

I went grocery shopping and actually bought enough food to last a week.

Laundry: Not just bed linens, but clothing and towels as well.

Filled out paperwork for health insurance prior to benefits meeting this week.

Located my social security card (see last item).

Made dinner for myself and roommate last night, as she was on her second double-shift work day of the week. Meatless Tuesday: Couscous with chickpeas, onion, garlic and toasted pine nuts.

Scheduled hair appointment in hopes that weather will cooperate and I may begin wearing my hair down.

I could store all of these tasks in my iPhone (surely there's an app for that), but I still prefer the old-school method of list-making: Post-it notes and various scraps of lists collected in a small Moleskine notebook with accordion pocket that I keep in my shoulder bag and update daily. There's something really satisfying about crossing items from the list (or moving them to next week) with pen to paper that doesn't really translate to high-tech. There's always the possibility that I'll change my tune and tout the advantages of the next amazing "to-do list app" by the end of the year. I do love my apps.

I'm also learning how much is too much. I had the best of intentions to attend the Austin Social Media Club meetup (on crowdsourcing) yesterday evening, I went home and watched Glee instead. I had a long discussion with myself and the final decision was that I'd really rather be home watching actors pretending to be high schoolers sing and dance. I don't call it lazy, I call it Kelly time.

Are you more productive at a certain time of year? Do you have iPhone apps I should know about? Do you still hand-write your to-do lists?