The notorious list maker

Some time ago my beloved friend turned 40 and wanted to have a great party at her home. I flew in few days earlier to help her getting ready.

To be honest, she did not need help, more in the lines of we both needed an overdue catch up before anyone else arrived. The reason she did not need any help was that she was so organized. She probably had always been, having raised kids, working and studying on top of those two huge commitments without husbandry help.

I got a glimpse to her organizational wizardry on that weekend. She had lists. All sorts of lists. Guest list, food list, drinks list, decoration list and general to do list. All these lists were ruled by a master list which was chronologically organized. Weeks earlier do this, one week before do this, three days before do this.

She also had list for tasks for other people. Like her kids whose job was to get the house ready. That list was neatly divided into sections, which kid did which task at which time. Then she just ticked every task after checking it was done.

Needless to say, her party was a success, everyone had excellent time and nothing was forgotten or misplaced.

Many times afterwards I have been wondering why she never considered a career in project management. She would have never needed any formal training. She was a natural.

After that great weekend I adopted her list making habit. Now, years later I cannot live without lists. They are great.

I have notes app in my phone where I gather list for the books I want to read. Every time I hear about a good book, I add it to my list and when I run out of reading, I reach for that list. For years I thought I will remember them, but no. I only remember that ‘yeah, there was this great book, but what was it and who wrote it’. Cannot remember. A quick survey in my circles indicates that I am not alone.

When I plan a project at home - the latest was to build a new fence – I start by making a list. What is needed, who makes what, what I can do alone, what is the budget etc. I can outline when I have time to do which task, where and when I need help and when to order everything.

At work, the list making offers the best value. I make lists of every task for every project I have and it is amazingly fulfilling to tick off the tasks from the lists. Making lists helps to organize the work and projects and aids in remembering everything. Seeing it all in a list helps to observe what is missing.

Writing the list relieves the brain of the stress that I need to remember the task, it is all there and the brain can concentrate to more important things.

Books have been written about doing daily lists, but I find it much easier to just have lists without a date stamp on them (unless there really are pressing deadlines). I do not want to have a message ringing in my head at the end of the day that I only finished this and this amount of today’s quota. That is a negative message and it affects my self-esteem and the way I see myself and how good I feel at the end of the day.

Rather, I check my lists every day and do whatever I can at that day. I will feel fulfilled because I have finished this many tasks. What a positive note for the end of the day. I have achieved things and can go home happy.

Lists are great. If you have never tried, have a go with them. You can be as superficial as you need and want, or you can be more OCD and list pretty much everything. If, even after trying them for some time, it is not your thing, keep going with whatever other system you have. But I believe that lists are quite useful tool for the most of us.