A List is Just a List

     I use lists for two reasons.  I'll go ahead and make a list of my reasons:

         1-  To make myself sane.

         2-  To make myself go crazy.

Here's A List Of The Ways Lists Keep Me Sane:  

      1- I don't have to remember anything - it's all on the list!

          I have lists of things to do today, lists of things to do this year, lists of goals,
     lists of house projects...  I have lists by store:  if I'm at a book store I look at that list, if we're
     going to the movies I look at my list of movies to see, if we're buying wine I look at a list of
     recommended wines/wines we've tried and liked.  I have ongoing lists for Lowe's, Costco,
     Sprouts, the grocery store...

          Most of these lists are on my phone.  I add to them whenever something occurs to me
     and it's there when I need it.

     2- Lists also give me a sense of accomplishment.  

          I keep a list of when I work out, lists of books read in a year, when I write, deadlines
     completed, etc.  This type of list I usually keep in a cheap calendar or notebook by where I
     do that task:  by my workout stuff, by the bed, on my desk...

          The calendar is especially helpful with working out.  I see the big picture.  ("If I don't
     work out today I will only have worked out once this week.")  I used to just have a vague
     sense that I'd worked out 'recently'.  Sometimes, when I thought about it, I'd realize that
     'recently' was 3 weeks ago.  Seeing a month at a time motivates me.
   
          Sometimes the sense of accomplishment is delayed.  I love finding old lists and getting to
     mark off things I've gotten done.  Marking off things, in general, pretty much rocks my world.
     Sometimes I'll add something that wasn't on the list...just so I can mark it off.  (ex.'s  -lay
     around in bed 'til 11:30 a.m., -accidentally eat a bag of Cheetos, -read that new Stephen King
     book Michael started before he gets home from work and wants to read it himself.  Check,
     check, and check!)

     3- Calm.  Making a list gives me such a sense of peace.  It gives me that illusion of control.  It
          creates order out of chaos.   As Mary Poppins would say:  "Well begun is half done."  

          Making a list forces me to focus on the things that are most important.  

         The picture above is a pile of lists I made while we were restoring our house.  That was the
     ultimate example of trying to gain some control.  The things that needed to be done felt endless.

          I made a lot of the lists while I was out of town for work, when I was feeling completely
     helpless.  I'd make a list of every single, solitary, task that needed doing.

          Without my lists I felt no sense of progress.  When I returned home I'd go over to work
     on the house in the morning, work all day...and it still looked like a bombed-out building when I
     left at night.  But, with a list, I could mark off things on the list.  It gave me something concrete
     to show for my labor:  -Remove piles of debris from kitchen,  -tear out lathe and plaster from
     back bedroom,  -sweep rat/squirrel-carcasses from between framing, -remove linoleum from
     downstairs hallway, -try not to kill Fred, (the crazy carpenter)... 

          I went completely OCD on these lists.  Most of my lists are scribbled in a hurry, but these
     were typed, only marked out with one type of pen...I even used a straight edge to mark them
     off.  Something needed to be neat and tidy in my life.  These lists were definitely of the
     'keep me sane' variety.  They helped me to believe we might actually live in the house
     one day.

   5-  Lists narrow things down.  They make the number of things that need to be done finite.  It    
         may be many, many, (many, many...) things, but there is an end to them somewhere.

          I read that you should keep your daily to-do list on a sticky note.  The reasoning is that if you
     have more than that you won't get it all done in a day.  That's pretty good advice.  

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Here's A List Of The Ways Lists Make Me Crazy:

     1-  Unfortunately, I frequently fail at narrowing down what I want to get done in a day.  I don't
     use a sticky note.  I use index cards...oversized index cards.  I tend to add far more items than
     can reasonably be accomplished in a day.  

     2-  All too often I come across lists that have a whole slew of items I've yet to accomplish.  This
          is a depressing side of too much list-making.

     3-  Lists can make me not only feel crazy...but look crazy.

          Sometimes, if I just have a few things I want to remember, I just keep repeating them.  Say,
     for example, I'm headed out the door.  I might just keep saying:  "sweater, keys,  
     sunglasses, purse, lip balm...sweater, keys, sunglasses, purse, lip balm,...sweater, keys,
     sunglasses, purse, lip balm,..."

           It has happened that I've gotten in the car, still repeating the list, and realized I don't have all
     of them.  Somewhere along the hurried path to the door the words stopped being a
     list, and started just being things a crazy person says to herself.

    4-  The lists might take more time than they save.

          I sometimes have to wonder what I could have accomplished if I'd actually worked on  
     something, instead of spending all that time making lists.