How many to do lists does it take to get something done?

I often wonder what life would be like without a long "to do" list.  I don't think it is even possible for me not to have a list in my head, on my phone, in my email, on my desk, in my car, at work etc. etc.  They often say the same things and I often lose them, re-write them and lose them again. I tend to think about making the phone calls on the to do list at either, lunchtime when no one is in the office or 5:15pm also when no one is in the office or if I'm super efficient at 7:30am when, you guessed it, no one is in the office.  Why I can't think of making phone calls at 10am or 2pm is a mystery of the universe.

I am an organizational product junkie, this is not to say that I am exceedingly organized, because I am not.  I love the IDEA of being organized, I love to read Real Simple magazine and buy the Real Simple products at Target and dream of a day when everything I own has a label on it.  I own a label maker, tons of file folders, boxes, bins, color coded this and that and still I have to hunt for pieces of paper, I take UPS items to the post office, I upend drawers looking for my septic plan and that was all just since Friday.  I have fantasies about a place for everything and everything in it's place, I periodically subscribe to www.flylady.net and get all gung ho about her ideas (which are fabulous and work if you do them) and then get overwhelmed and unsubscribe and go back to my unmade bed and my unshined sink with hotspots chasing me around the house threatening to burn me alive at any moment.  I have lots of books about clutter but I don't know where I put them.

I used to be organized, back before I had children I had it all together but then we moved to a giant house, I had twins, my son got diagnosed with autism and real life where you have more to do than time to do it, set in.  I have some systems in place that work for me, I have a "control journal" (ala Flylady) where I keep phone numbers, menus and a sheet protector for each member of the family, I keep schedule items in there and it works pretty well.  I make lunches and pack backpacks the night before, I lay out clothes the night before, in these ways I am organized.  But I am only as strong as my weakest link and my weak link (dh) packed the lunches last night and forgot the boy's cheese for his sandwich (realized this a.m. AT SCHOOL, guess it's PB&J for him today!). 

Every week I want to start fresh, I want to get my lace up shoes on (seriously, check out flylady if you have no idea what I'm talking about) and tackle some clutter but first I have to find my new color coded paper I bought so I can make the best to do list ever!