Want To Declutter Your Brain? Cross Something Off Your ‘Needle List’

If you’re like me, you always have a list of small tasks piling up in your head: schedule an annual physical, return a shirt you ordered online, donate a bag of clothes.Many of these tasks don’t actually take much time to complete, but I put them off for weeks or months at a time.All the time, they take up too much space in my brain and annoy me.

Serena Wolf, a chef and author of The Dude Diet, calls these little things we tend to procrastinate on a “pinhead list,” which she’s talked about on her Instagram.

In a post explaining the concept, Wolfe wrote: “They live in the depths of my mind for free and irritate me every day.”

Many of her fans contacted her to tell her that they, too, had lists of needles and just didn’t know what to name them.When I heard this concept, it immediately resonated with me.For four months, I had been trying to request an itemized receipt from my dentist’s office to submit to my flexible spending account for approval.When I finally did, the whole process took me about 15 minutes.

Tasks on the pin list are usually personal (i.e., not work-related), non-urgent and slightly inconvenient, and can usually be completed in less than 30 minutes.Other examples might include mailing thank-you notes, answering personal emails, cleaning out the refrigerator, putting everything in the bedroom “hat and coat chair,” or fixing something small, such as a broken watch or necklace.

If you’re the type of person who takes care of little things as soon as they come up, that’s great.But for the rest of us, carving out time each week to tackle things on our to-do lists might be the way to go.One of Wolfe’s goals for 2022 is to spend 30 to 60 minutes on Fridays doing just that.So far, she says it’s been an “absolute game changer.”

She wrote on Instagram: “Not only does this make me feel more relaxed on the weekends, it also makes me more productive during the week as I find it easier to focus with less mental distractions.The batch processing mentality also helps with stress/anxiety when a new to-do list comes up because I can put it in my Friday brain basket knowing I’ll deal with it at a dedicated time on Friday.”

For people with depression, the concept of a pinhead list may sound similar to what author M. Molly Backes calls “impossible tasks” – a common but under-discussed symptom of depression.Impossible tasks are everyday chores-such as doing the dishes, talking on the phone, or organizing the mail-that feel insurmountable to a depressed person.

While the two concepts may overlap, people who are struggling with depression also experience other symptoms, such as prolonged and pervasive sadness, feelings of worthlessness or self-loathing, irritability, difficulty sleeping, or changes in appetite-not just procrastination in cleaning out the junk drawer.

Wolfe, who suffers from anxiety, says her “anxiety brain” makes it easy for her to memorize her list of needles in her head, though she sometimes writes it down for clarity and the sweet satisfaction of crossing things off.

“The nature of a stitch list is that these tasks stimulate you on a regular basis – so writing them down is really just a form of catharsis and organization, not a necessity for remembering what they are,” says Wolfe, who is also the podcast about living with anxietyco-host of the program Spiral Up.(Personally, I like to jot down tasks on paper because it makes me feel less distracted.Maybe you’d rather take notes on your phone.(Do what works for you!)

Wolfe says she likes to keep her stitch list to five or less at any given time.It’s more manageable, and she likes knowing that she can get most (and sometimes all) of her stitches done by the designated time on Friday.Others may prefer to spend a few minutes a day on these tasks rather than a longer time each week.

“Literally and spiritually, I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to cross those things off the needlepoint list,” she says.”It does bring amazing satisfaction and helps you breathe a little deeper.”

By discussing the needle list with his online community and friends, Wolfe learned how many people are struggling with the same thing.

Wolfe says, “For better or worse, it’s always comforting to know that I’m not the only one who procrastinates on tasks that seem ‘very simple’ and that they can affect me in that way.”