The nature of "To do" lists

Have you ever noticed that the "to do" list is self-populating?  Task growth rate far exceeds death rate.  My lists also clone themselves.  I often find several around the house containing much the same information, with enough mutation to have evolved.

I am not against such tasks and their preferred list habitat, but at times what had been one simple task divides itself into several complex tasks, something that I find inherently disturbing, but in line with the chaotic nature of the universe.

The various Odums, ecological gurus that they are/were, mulled over the pulsed nature of ecosystems, remarking that while we like to believe that the world is heading toward a "stable state", we never actually reach that state.  As such, the state of change, or "Nature's Pulsing Paradigm," becomes the stable state.  Perhaps I should just accept this premise as the driver of my "to do" lists and stop fretting about them in general.

I suppose if there were nothing on my "to do" list, I would eventually fuss about being bored.