You Need an "Every Damn Day List"

My mama started it by sending me a blog article on Pinterest. She said, “have you heard of this?!”

I had not.

But after a quick perusal of Sarah Von Bargen’s article on yesandyes.org, I was sold.

I needed an Every Damn Day List.

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See, I was three weeks into feeling “off.” I couldn’t figure out what was going on in my body, and I couldn’t “metal toughness” myself out of it. I knew that whatever my body was experiencing would end one day.

But I still didn’t love what my days looked like.

And no matter what goals I made, alarms I set, or accountability measures I put in place, I just couldn’t function like I wanted to – like I was expecting myself to. Which is why the four questions Von Bargen asked in “Why You Need An ‘Every Damn Day’ List + How To Create One” stopped me cold.

All four questions start with, “what’s the smallest possible action…”

As I read through her examples, I mentally catalogued what I was expecting myself to do, comparing it to her ideas.

My catalogue was not only too long, but it was too much.

It was too much for my struggling body. It was unrealistic for my foggy brain. My everyday list was written with the normal “should” for a healthy adult in mind. And it was killing me. The shame and guilt and pressure – the failure – I felt when yet another day went by and I hadn’t carried laundry, cooked supper, deep cleaned baseboards, worked five hours, spent two hours studying, and exercised my body was excruciating.

Von Bargen’s Every Damn Day List counteracts that.

Smallest possible action.

I won’t lie to you – it took me an hour and three attempts at a list to get one with small actions on it. If you’re also a high-achieving chronically ill person, you know exactly what I’m talking about!

My 2025 "Every Damn Day List"

I’ve been using my Every Damn Day List for a little over three months now, and none of them have been normal or baseline for me! If there was ever a perfect time to try this out, it was Quarter 1 (January – March) 2025.

A flare of one of my conditions, recovering from the events of my fall 2024, and diving headfirst into lay ministry at my church left my routines in the dust and my functionality pretty much non-existent. Let me put it another way – for most of January, getting dressed wasn’t physically an option; I couldn’t shower without help and supervision; and I wasn’t allowed to climb stairs more than once a day.

And while I can do most of this now, at the end of March, mornings are still unpredictable and my daily capacity fluctuates greatly. If it wasn’t for my Every Damn Day List, these months would have felt like a waste.

But they weren’t.

Because I have five things I can do regularly that make my space feel nicer, my body healthier, my mind more stable, and me on top of my life.

A random week from this month

It’s not about perfection. It’s not even about completion!

It’s about doing just one little thing that makes a positive impact on even your very worst day. Because that one little thing matters.

Your small things are going to be different than mine. Your small things might be bigger than mine! Maybe they are even smaller. But if they matter to you, if they change your day positively, then they belong on your very own “Every Damn Day” List.

Read this article.

Take my experience to heart.

Stop holding yourself to an unrealistic expectation.

Give yourself permission to stay in your jammies, call making the grocery list “work,” and consider napping productive.

Cheering you on as you create your own list - blessings on the smallest of things you do!