There’s nothing better than that feeling you get from placing a check mark next to a completed task, or crossing out an item in heavy ink, or filling in that circle that was drawn to the left of a tedious chore. Whatever you use to mark the accomplishment, there’s something uniquely satisfying about making that mark.

My writing sister, Tina Williams had a great idea in one of her recent blog posts. She, like me, is a list lover. And she, like me, likes the challenge of coming up with creative ideas. She suggested the antithesis of “making a to-do list;” something I re-branded as the “Never To-Do List.”

Upon reading Tina’s never to-do list, I realized that she and I are not as alike as I’d thought. (She pledges never to eat kale.) Me? I have a t-shirt that looks like this:

It is my favorite t-shirt. I wear it almost as often as I eat kale. (For reference: I eat kale nearly every day and don’t have many t-shirts.)

My list of ten never to-do is as follows:

1. Slaughter an animal
2. Commit suicide by hanging
3. Abandon my children
4. Keep a bird as a pet
5. Go to church
6. Take photos of art instead of spending time with art
7. Drive a Hummer or other gas guzzler
8. Live in the South
9. Get a Brazilian waxing
10. Get divorced

I’d be interested in your list. I encourage you to formulate your responses without too much reflection. (I did, as evidenced my #9.) Also, I’d suggest that you try to avoid ending your “I’d never” with a statement that leads with “stop doing X,” as this is really just a way to say “I intend to continue doing what already works for me.”

E.g. “I’d never stop drinking my morning coffee” has a different feel from “I’d never do cocaine.” See how both statements are about stimulants, caffeine and cocaine, respectively but how you learn a lot more from the second statement?

Ready, set, go . . .