A New Sewing Machine and a To Do List Trick!

This is my new Brother 420 sewing machine and boy did I struggle with this decision!  I ordered it last Saturday from amazon and it came on Tuesday.  It is too soon to tell for sure, but I think I am in love.  Many of the super cool sewing bloggers that I follow sew on high end mechanical Jukis or super expensive computerized Janomes, Berninas, etc.  I have the means to buy what I want, but I am super practical and wanted to buy something that would not make me want to rip my hair out!  Also, sewing is a hobby for me, not my job.  Most of the sewing bloggers I follow are designers, authors or simply love to sew to supplement their income.  All of these things are admirable and fantastic, but they are also things I am never going to do.
My simple criteria - a machine that doesn't jam and have threads bunch up underneath the project, some cool stitches, a large throat area for big projects, and something without a huge learning curve. I picked this machine because I already own a brother.  The parts are interchangeable and I understand my current machine which is a brother 6000.

My 6000 was a great way to start 5 years ago, but I have put it through a beating.  It would jam and make multiple thread nests when going through thick materials.  I was hesitant because this was the same brand and not much more expensive but it had great reviews and I could always send it back if I needed to right?  I wanted to have it for over a week before I go back to school so I would have time to try it out before going back to school in the fall.  I have 6 days before I start work on Friday so I am going to play some more and I will let you know what I think then.  I have already made a Kitchenaid cover and will put pictures up soon.
This brings me to my to do list.  I have a Pinterest board of things I would like to do sooner rather than later.  I never seem to be able to finish a large to do list, there are always a couple of lone things that don't get done, which are then added to my next list.  My trick is to put more things there than I know I have time to do and set a number of things to get done from the list.  This gives me options and choices, which I need.  In other words if I have a to do list with 5 things on it I will probably finish 3 or 4 because at least 1 of those 5 things won't sound interesting to me at the moment.  BUT if I have a list of 8 or 9 things I would like to get done and set a goal of finishing 5, I will get 5 done.  It sounds stupid, but I think it is because I have a choice.  If I say I want to make a lunch bag, tote bag, wallet, car bag and cosmetic bag I won't finish because maybe I am just not in the mood to make the lunch bag, so only 4 of the five will get done.  If my list is longer I can choose 5 things that I am in the mood to make and 5 will get done.  Does anyone else have to trick themselves into getting things done, or are all of you just over achievers?
My sewing goal is to get 5 of the 9 things on the board done before the first day of school with kids on August 26th.  Do you want to know a little secret?  That goal contains not 1, but 2 tricks!
1.  I really only want to get five things done...
AND
2.  I really want to actually be done by our 1st teacher inservice day on August 22nd.

My tricks give me room to breath and actually give me a chance of reaching my goals!  My big summer goal was to deep clean my house from top to bottom and I only have 1 room left to go so that goal is going to also be easily met!