Wednesday, April 9, 2014

I am drowning in lists

My son and I are at the grocery store and a family passes us. The family has this conversation:

"What do we need again?"
"I don't know - I think cheese."
"Don't we have cheese?"
"It might not be the right kind."

My son hears all this and says to me, "Those people are not list people, Mommy."

I am a bit proud. And somewhat terrified.

Hi. My name is Lauren and I am a list person. I keep lists for all sorts of things. I have grocery shopping lists, and weekly menu plans. I keep monthly event lists and blog topic lists and story idea lists. I have lists for music I want to purchase when I get back to my computer and for things I want to do next season. And I keep lists of projects I want to finish.

In other words, I am drowning in lists.

Which made me wonder if lists were as good of an organizational tool as I thought they were. So, I read this older study about why lists don't work and then made a list of why I am going to stubbornly keep making them:
  • My memory is failing me. Two things I can remember. Three? I have to write it down.
  • Some lists are communal. And yes, I expect other family members to contribute to the shopping list (this is a work in progress).
  • I keep them all in one location. It's not like I have 5 notebooks laying around. I have one big one with all my lists in it. (And a small one. And that grocery one...ok, I try to keep them all together.)
  • I really, really like crossing things off my to-do list. And I know I am not alone on that.
So, I'm going to stick with my lists. Incidentally, a few days after our shopping trip, my son handed my a piece of paper with some scribbles on it and said, "Here, Mommy, I made you a list."

That's my boy!

How do you stay organized? Are you a list-driven person? Leave me a message in the comments (and feel free to make it into a list format!)

5 comments:

  1. I am a lists lady myself! How can anyone survive without making lists??? (And if they do, please share the secret with me).

    I use the Reminders App on my iPhone, I have a "Today" list, "Music I Want" list, "We Need" list...and so forth, I NEED these lists for my sanity's sake.

    Great post!

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    Replies
    1. I love my phone, but I still use paper and pencil for my lists...does that make me a cavewoman?

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  2. 1. I love lists.
    2. They're on paper or a small white board.
    3. I try to convince my family to do all the things on my "family to-do cleaning lists".
    4. When they don't, I realize I'll I just make my own list and have fun crossing off items like, drink coffee, do yoga, go for a walk etc. The other dull items, like pay bills, tend to stay on the list for a while in hopes someone else with do them.

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    Replies
    1. ooops, I mean WILL do them.

      Delete
    2. Do you ever write something down on your list that you are about to do, just for the joy of being able to cross it off?
      Wait...does that sound crazy?
      Yeah, I totally don't do that either...haha...never mind.

      Delete