The List Making Process

I love making lists. In fact, the majority of my moleskin is filled with various lists. To-do lists, things-to-pack lists, grocery lists & lists of various goals…For me, making a list is helpful in narrowing your focus. It sorts out what you really want to accomplish & prioritizes them accordingly. & let’s be honest, what is a better feeling than crossing something off from a list?

Definitely one of life’s greatest small pleasures.

For some people, it’s not making the list that is the problem – but being able to cross off items as completed that is the barrier. Here are some tips that might help you accomplish more from your lists:

Stay Specific When you’re in the process of making your list, take a few extra minutes to really think ahead for each task. Often, if you find yourself unable to complete something – it might need to be broken down into smaller pieces. Don’t label it as something too large like, “Clean garage” – realistically it will be more like, “Separate into keep, donate, & trash piles” & “Have garage sale” before the ball really starts rolling.

Create a Deadline While some of your goals might have more of an ongoing status, when possible create a deadline so you can re-evaluate your list & perhaps change your strategy. If you’re having trouble ‘finding motivation’ re-evaluate what your goals are – often they aren’t what you truly want & that is why it is so hard to complete. If the finish line isn’t where you want to be, why run there?

Don’t Set Yourself Up For Failure Remember to set yourself *realistic* goals. Repeated attempts & fails at something will not help the process – reach out for support if you need it surrounding one of your tasks.

Never Compare Your List to the Lists of Others Just because my friend uses a list where the ideas/tasks all rotate around a cloud in the middle, doesn’t mean that my linear list is no good. Making lists can be a helpful way to learn your own ‘approach to task’ – if something doesn’t work out exactly as you expected, keep working at finding the system that does work.