Owning Your Lists

I may be struggling to get into a routine right now, but some things follow predictable patterns, like the list-making I talked about back in the summer of 2016. Read on for some strategies for the patterns I identified.

Then:

As an I need to see it person, I have a love-hate relationship with lists. Because I need to see things, I love dumping "stuff" out of my head and onto paper -- to a point. If the lists get too long, however, I start to get overwhelmed and I need to subdivide. As I wrote yesterday, some of that subdivision came naturally as I indented bullet points beneath topics that had more than one thing to do beneath them.

Does your list-making reflect your styles, or do you have a different style altogether when it comes to making lists?

• If your personal style is I need to see it, do you subdivide and color-code for visual efficiency?
• If you're a cram and jammer, do you cram as much as possible onto one page?
• If you're a drop and run organizer, do you make your list, set it down and forget about it, only to return to it later?
• If you have an I love stuff personal style, do you need to find just the right paper before you can write anything down?
• If you're an I know I put it somewhere organizer, do your lists go missing because you put them in a "safe place"?
• If you have an I love to be busy personal style, are you as efficient with your lists as you are with your time?

In my case, my list-making does reflect my styles. I've already revealed my I need to see it tendencies, and I do, indeed drop my list and run, only to return to it later on. Fortunately, the mere process of writing it down reminds me of the things I need to tackle, so when I return to my list, I've typically made some progress, even if I was in one place and it was in another.

Whether your list-making style mimics your personal and/or organizational styles or deviates from them isn't what matters. What matters is whether or not your list-making works for you. With lists, as with all other aspects of organizing, one size does not fit all. 

Bru-nO via Pixabay

And now:

Although one style doesn’t fit all, sometimes one solution—or, in this case, two—can be useful for multiple styles. What might those be?

Location and visibility.

Let’s start with visibility. No matter your style, there’s a good chance that all of the items on it run together, especially as the list gets longer. Taking a page, so to speak, out of the I need to see it playbook can be helpful in not only making items stand out, but also chunking the list so that it feels less overwhelming. Whether you opt to put headers on your list and group items by topic or location, number the items, in order of importance/priority, give each category its own page in a notebook or simply create the list and then highlight items in different colors to indicate priority or some other subcategory, making the key items on your list stand out is the end goal. 

You might want to experiment with this strategy to see what makes your list most clear and least overwhelming. Maybe highlight phone calls in yellow and errands in blue. Or, maybe highlight the top three items that you want to accomplish and then, after you’ve checked them off, highlight three more things. One caveat: while pulling out the highlighters and coming up with a color for every item on the list might sound great to some of us, this plan can quickly become procrastination wrapped up in pretty colors. Pay close attention to whether this is a practical time saver or a frivolous time waster.

Who needs this strategy?

• People like me with the I need to see it personal style who are probably already subdividing and color-coding because one long list quickly becomes more than we can visually manage without feeling overwhelmed;
• Cram and jammers, who cram as much as possible onto one page and sometimes can’t really see the items running up the side of the paper;
• I love to be busy folks, who profit from well-organized lists because time is at a premium.

Now let’s look at location. This comes down to simply choosing one or two spots in your house where your lists live. You can create a list anywhere and, if you’re like me, you probably have paper in nearly every room in the house so that you can write things down before you forget. The key here is not to stop writing it down when you think about it but rather to put the finished (or work-in-progress) list in a designated spot every time. My designated drop spots are the desk in my office and the counter in the kitchen. Typically, the desk in my office holds the master list that has everything on it and the short list on the kitchen counter holds all the things I must not forget to do that day. Why? Because I walk past that counter on my way to and from nearly every place in my house, including the back door, building an automatic memory jog into every trip.

Who needs this strategy?

• Drop and run organizers who make the list, set it down and forget about it;
• Those with an I love stuff personal style, who feel the need to find just the right paper before they can write anything down (give those special notepads designated homes!)
• I know I put it somewhere organizers whose lists go missing because they put them in a "safe place" which may or may not be the same every time.

For most of us, lists are as much a part of our daily life as breathing. But, like any other organizational tool, they should be used in our service, not vice versa. Getting into the twin habits of customizing our lists and keeping them accessible can be keys to making sure that happens.