List making serves the obvious purpose of aiding my memory at a particular moment; but, more than that, I believe it organizes and frees my mind. When I write down what I need to attend to, some process begins of it’s own accord that connects wires and produces ideas that I hadn’t thought of before. Sometimes, I don’t even need to refer to a list for the rest of the day. The simple act of writing it down has given me the necessary direction. Other times, my list provides the backbone of my day, standing firm against falsely urgent Sirens.
Amazingly, my lists engender flexibility. Energy that might have been used up by little bits of information constantly needing to be recaptured is now able to be used on a higher level. Creative opportunities present themselves. Solutions to the days challenges have been known to unexpectedly appear as the list naturally reveals priorities. I do not permit a list to become a tyrant. It is always a servant, designed by me for my benefit. Also, lists are expected to accommodate unanticipated things, whether it be what my husband needs/wants me to do or variable needs of other family members. Actually, the list helps to quickly evaluate adjustments to make this possible.
I regularly have daily lists, carry-over lists, long term to-do lists for specific categories, reusable charts. They all evolve as life changes. Below is a copy of my current master grocery list. I usually have a copy of it on the refrigerator. I frequently use simple code next to an item if I want to remember to get it at a certain store. You can also see that I have a list of certain stores where I often shop, but don’t have regular enough items to get there. My motto could be: Take a load off of your mind, make a list.
I’ve given in to making lists, I used to just keep it all in my mind, but do not like it when I remember something I was going to do when my day is over and my head hits the pillow.
I am up now [11:18 p.m.] b/c I forgot to do something for several days now. It was never put down on a “list.” And it always appears in my mind when I go to bed! I couldn’t sleep, thinking, “I’ll forget this tomorrow, too.” So… I believe in lists, as you know, but have learned to be flexible, as long as my list says I can! 🙂
Great list, Laura! Lists are total brain-savers. I keep a notepad and paper next to my bed to capture those random late-night additions….
Mary
When I suddenly remember something, and am afraid I’ll forget it later, I whip out my ipod and send an email to myself. That works pretty well. I have evolving shopping lists and book lists on my ipod, as well, which helps when I go to the store and can’t remember what I was supposed to be getting … 😀
The trouble for me with electronic lists is that I need to be able to cross things off as a record that I got them. Just deleting them doesn’t work, especially if I go to different stores over the course of a couple of days. Of course, you well know that I still sometimes get duplicates of things. I’m sure you are much better at knowing how to use those gadgets than I am, though.
In most word processors (I know for sure in google docs which is where i manage my task lists) there is a Strike-through feature I’ve found to be very quick and handy. Also in google docs (I’m imagining this must be a pretty standard feature as well) You can highlight a line and either change the lines color or change the text on that lines color. This works really nice as well, I use the color to denote all kinds of things from status to priority. Colors also come in handy on google docs where you have a couple people editing the list I like to give each person a color while a document is being worked out. But for easy checklists I just go with the strike-through.
Rich – I guess there are some things you need to teach me… or I need to accidentally discover while plugging along with what I know.