Lists

I used to be a listmaker. Lots and lots of lists. Lists of everything. Grocery lists, lists of when to pay bills, travel lists, lists for cycling events, lists for work. They were everywhere. They never ended. It felt good to cross an item off, but ultimately once half the page was crossed off I’d rewrite the list and add more at the end. The list was never finished.

I am now a recovering listmaker. Before I get to the ‘recovery’, I want to share two influences on my change of habits regarding listmaking.

The first comes from a guy I used to work with 15-20 years ago. He eventually moved into significant management positions being very successful in those. At one point we had a conversation about his style; I don’t know how we arrived at that subject or even what the rest of the conversation was about, but this is what I remember. As a manager he received hundreds of emails every day and could spend all day simply reading and responding to emails, some of which had no significant relevance for him and his position. That wasn’t where his time needed to be spent. While he had long-term objectives he always kept in mind, what he did every morning was scan through as many emails as he could as quickly as he could. From all that he’s find the 3-5 more important and mark those. The importance was also business related and obviously somewhat subjective. He would focus on making progress on answering those 3-5 emails every day so that when he went home he could really be with his family and leave the list nearly empty to start the next day.

The second is a different sort of prioritization system which comes from a long-time nuclear engineer – I don’t know exactly what he did other than that was his title. Again I don’t remember the context or the full conversation, just these bits. He said on the corner of his desk was a stack of folders. The folders came from various people and it was his responsibility to do something with the information in the folders. When he began his work, he always grabbed the top folder and dealt with what was in that first. Then move on to the second one and so on. If someone came back and asked about what happened with a folder, he could either tell them it had been dealt with, or if it was in the pile still, it would immediately be moved to the top. This system has two automatic priority systems – one was the newest items were always dealt with first. The second was that if something was really important, it would be mentioned repeatedly and find its way back to the top. Eventually some folders would drift down to the bottom and he would probably never get to them. If that was the case, it truly wasn’t important that it needed his attention.

While I’m sure both of these accounts have more detail, they do inform my change and list making strategy now.
My ‘recovery’ began perhaps 5 years ago. I made a conscious choice to stop making lists, or at least to reduce the number of paper lists significantly. Instead I would use my mind and my memory. I used a combination of strategies from both my friends – if it was really important I would remember it and if it really needed attention, I’d get to it right away and wouldn’t need to remember it anyway. I also changed how I made lists. I’d make lists based on priority and time, and most importantly I’d keep them short. For example my weekend list might be a few general items like cleaning, yard work, and laundry. With this system I knew what was really important, and at the end of the weekend I could throw away the list knowing it was fully done. I still have some long-term lists, and they clearly have lower priority and don’t get as much attention, but they do exist.

I’ve kept up this system since then and it has worked extremely well. I feel like I get more done, and get it done more efficiently. Life is simpler and easier with so much done, and not seeing lists of stuff still to do. There will always be stuff to do, but I don’t need to constantly remind myself of that, or even worse feel guilty for it. I really enjoy the satisfaction of getting done what really needs to be done.