I have to admit that making a list of things to do for the day in my At-A-Glance Standard Diary (a hardbound book with a full calendar page for each day, and the year of its use printed on the outside) and then crossing them off when they have been done does create a certain kind of satisfaction. I find this approach much more satisfying than the alternative, which is to simply let the day take you where it wants to go. To a depressed person, it will automatically go to a negative place where one thought after the other will dwell on negativity. Then you wonder why you are depressed all day.

Watching your thoughts is also very good to do because it helps you to see how you are creating the negativity in your life, instead of feeling like a victim because your mind is creating so many bad thoughts that end up depressing you. You don't have bad thoughts because you are depressed. You are depressed because you have bad thoughts. Having bad thoughts is controllable. You can stop having them if you are willing to make some effort. Even a little effort at a time will reap some baby-step rewards for you, and that in and of itself can be very exciting.

For example, if you are too depressed to get out of bed in the morning, you would make getting up the number one item on your list. I have had days where I got up, and having nothing planned for the day, I went back to bed. Of course, I couldn't get to sleep. Having nothing to do all day gives you nothing to look forward to, which is another advantage of a daily to-do list.

Add a few pleasurable items to the list. It needn't be all work. I put "take a bike ride," or "read a book" on the list as a reminder to keep things positive and relaxed. Exercise is nature's enemy to depression, so be sure to get some sort of a workout in during the day. You will notice it the next day when the endorphins kick in and you are feeling better because of it. Exercise is very addictive and you will start to miss it if you have to stop it for any length of time.

Even if you do something without fail every day, you can still put that item on your list and cross it off when you are done. I like to meditate every day, so I put that on the list. I probably would do it anyway even if it wasn't on the list, but I put it there as well. These kinds of items help you to fill out your list. You can look back on the lists you made for each day and see the progress you are making. That's why I purchase the At-A-Glance Standard Diary. It makes the lists into a permanent record that you can look back on. When you compare what you did on a day when you were depressed to a day when you weren't depressed, you really begin to see progress, and feel that hope is there for you at the end of the dark tunnel that is depression.

If you are avoiding doing something big in your life, break it down to the smallest possible step, and just do that step. For example, if you need to start therapy and your health insurance pays for it, spend a tiny part of one day looking through the therapist's names in your area and see how you respond to certain names. Then set it aside for the day. The next day, you can make your phone calls, or maybe just make one phone call to the name you responded to. Then put it away for the day. That way nothing becomes overwhelming, and as we all know, depressive people are particularly sensitive to overwhelm.

If you practice the list making as a part of your daily homework to get yourself out of depression, and you see some good results happening, you will realize two things: 1. That you have come a long way from when you first started making the lists, and: 2. This progress in and of itself is worth getting excited over. Where you once had nothing to get up in the morning for, now there are as many reasons as you could possibly want because you put them there. You put them on your list.