Place paper in front of you on table. Pick up pen. Hold firmly.
Touch point to paper surface. Move wrist and hand across the page horizontally while pressing downward. Form letters in print or cursive. Lift pen from paper surface for spaces between words as needed. Take your time.
So what do you think?
Is that a list? A set of instructions? Is it vague? Is it helpful? Does it depend on the context?
We malign the lowly list – the checklist in particular – sometimes experiencing it as an unintentional shaming device when it comes to our obligations. We measure performance against expectation, and we come up short. I suffer from this tendency myself, too often a slave to my desire to document the day’s doings, convinced I’m more likely to accomplish the tasks at hand if they’re enumerated on a page.
It also feels good to check something off, doesn’t it? Ah, for that sweet moment of satisfaction in an overscheduled life!
But lists serve as more than a contemporary badge of busyness, or a set of reminders to guide us through our jobs, our parenting, our household duties.
Lists as Tools and Teasers
A light and enjoyable musing in the New York Times, “Our Longing for Lists,” describes the pleasures (and variations) of the list. Among other things, the article features an illustration of a list written by Johnny Cash to himself which, charmingly, included “Kiss June” (his wife) in the number two slot.
Also mentioned are notations used in the creative process, checklists vital to any gargantuan undertaking (hello, moon launch?), and an inclusion highlighting exclusions when it comes to lists:
Lists can reveal personal dramas. An exhibit of lists at the Morgan Library and Museum showed a passive-aggressive Picasso omitting his bosom buddy, Georges Braque, from a list of recommended artists.
Lists as reflective of our obsessions? Our moods? In addition to our lists of preparedness in case of emergency, our directions for completing applications, installing software, or assembling the latest filing cabinet to hold our store of lists?
Bucket List?
What other lists do we need – and adore?
The bucket list is much in current usage, and takes its origins as a collection of “things to do before you die” – referenced in a 2007 movie of that name. But according to Slate:
In 2004, the term was used—perhaps for the first time?—in the context of things to do before one kicks the bucket (a phrase in use since at least 1785)…
And what about the list poem? That’s been around for some time, and as a writing exercise, it’s a wonderful vehicle for encouraging observation – of our immediate surroundings, our interior landscapes, our belief systems – transforming the tangible into the lyrical, or at least allowing us to view the everyday with a more discriminating eye.
Can You List Your Lists?
What other lists are commonplace? Here are a few that come to my mind immediately:
- Shopping lists
- Wish lists
- Book lists
- Agenda items
- New Years Resolutions
- Packing lists
- Planning lists
- Course lists
- Sightseeing spots on vacation
- Steps to learn a new skill
- Steps to reach a destination
Isn’t the “how” of almost anything easier to follow when laid out sequentially in a list, even if there are interdependencies? Don’t lists enable us to simplify, identifying discrete elements which require that we complete them before moving on to the next?
Are you wedded to your lists?
Listing Pros and Cons
Aren’t lists capable of encouraging creativity, as well as providing comfort in their structure?
As for the list, the list poem, the poetry of fulfilling the potential of a word, an instruction, a good deed, a good day, a small piece of dream – I plan to stop chiding myself over my list-making habits. And with that, I’ll mention the list of pros and cons – perhaps one of the most widely used means to assess a situation and make a decision – about a job, a relocation, a relationship, a vote.
Place paper in front of you on table. Pick up pen. Hold firmly. Touch point to paper surface. Move wrist and hand across the page horizontally while pressing downward. Form letters in print or cursive. Lift pen from paper surface for spaces between words as needed.
Think. Consider. Take your time.
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I use a list everyday. Love lists but more importantly, love to check things off. I had a best friend who carried a little spiral notebook and she has pages and pages of lists which she kept adding to and then went back over the pages to see the circles items that were still to be done. This was my best friend of 42 years who died of cancer in 1998. I miss her lists everyday.
I am much happier for having lists to keep the chaos that would otherwise circle in my head properly nailed down in static form. I can’t ruminate about what is and isn’t being prioritized if it’s scribbled somewhere (or typed onto a virtual Post-It). That said, my lists are pretty fluid — I’ve learned not to cling to what’s written down like rules carved in stone as that just creates more stress. They do provide basic structure for goals and plans, which is the primary thing I seek when I use lists. If only making lists were as productive as doing what’s on them …
Ah, CT. Lists are indeed useful for organizing (including what is on our mind). There are times for lists, and other times for diagrams, and sometimes, a little bit of both can work wonders…
Ah, the list – such a fan. Think I’ve had all the lists you listed (!) , plus movie lists, art projects, lists and probably a few more.
Once when we were going through a rough patch and we were all in therapy, a therapist asked one daughter if she made lists. Her response: “in my family, we make lists”. Enough said. One daughter even has a master list of her lists.
I find that lists help me to stay focused. I also noticed that when I’m “wearing the gray sweater” (thanks for that apt description), I stop making lists. Once I crawl back out, I’m able to plan and think ahead, so guess the need for lists returns.
List – love from this corner!
A Master List of lists! I love it, Deb! (And don’t forget – that “gray sweater” line wasn’t mine – it was a quote, but such a perfect depiction of the feelings and state of mind, I agree.)
I love lists! My favorite list is the daily to-do list. I get an inexplicable amount of joy from crossing off simple tasks. My latest innovation, though, is to limit myself (ideally) to three to-do list tasks per day. That way I keep my expectations low and avoid the guilt associated with the mile long list of things that never get accomplished.
Love that story about Johnny Cash, by the way. Something tells me the world would be a more congenial place if we all included kissing a person we love in our daily to-do’s!
So lovely to be back here reading your words after a long summer away from the blogosphere! xo
While I have almost entirely abandoned my daily ‘to do’ list, I do make other lists. If I think about it, I sort of have a mental daily ‘to do’ list. That keeps the list manageable. When there is something important that must get done and I want if out of my head, I commit it to paper. That might be a single item, but it is a return to my list-making days.
I make word lists. I don’t think I could write poetry without doing that. I write lists of words that rhyme, synonyms, antonyms, metaphors, etc. I write word lists of ideas for blogging and poetry.
I definitely make a grocery shopping list – and it is categorized. I have a list of books that I hope to read. I have a list of ‘must haves’ when we buy a new home. I always make a list for gift buying at Christmas. When I travel, I make a list of things to pack. List-making is really rather important when I think about it, especially the pros versus cons list for making important decisions.
Word lists. Yep. I’m with you on that one, Robin!
Grocery lists, pantry lists, gratitude list (best written or re-read when grumpy or self-pitying), happy list (simple pleasures to incorporate into one’s life), gift ideas. It’s a subject on my blog, though I see I need to tidy that category…
My life wouldn’t run without lists.
A happy list, Shelley! Great idea!
I just clicked over to your list as writing exercise, the I believe in… How exquisite D A. My, my, my. That was so rich. Lists? I don’t adhere to a daily list but reading your post and the comments here, I realize I do keep several lists… book lists, music lists, movies I want to see lists, places I want to go lists, grocery lists, Christmas or just in general lists… and again, oh my goodness, reading poems like yours this morning list. Again, oh my.
We have far more lists than we realize, don’t we Barb? And I’m glad you enjoyed my little writing exercise. It was a fun “list” to make, and taught me much about what I believe in, in the process.
Aren’t lists – even list poems – instructive? 😉
I love finding old to-do lists that I’ve misplaced, and seeing how many things I was fussing over that I no longer care about.
List of firsts.
Budget list.
List of favorite words.
List of quotations.
Bibliography.
Index.
Playlist.
List of accomplishments.
And my daily companion to my *beloved* to-do list: a to-don’t list. Don’t bother with the following…
It saves my sanity. Because it lets me write down “learn to quilt” without obliging me to learning to quilt. Don’t bother with learning to quilt. Done. Check. Next! 😉
A “to Don’t” list! (What a great idea…) 😉