I love a list. I love to cross things off a list, I put things on a list just to cross them off. I make lists for everything. I also don’t think a list solely belongs on paper and that a “list” is more of a loose category of things like Pinterest boards, bullet journals, to do lists, gratitude lists, and bucket lists. Lists can be bullet points or Excel sheets. Lists can calm you down by getting your swirling thoughts out of your brain and in front of your eyes or remind you of quotes or moments you want to remember. They can be disposable once you’re done with them or something you keep forever.
Lists are magic.
And in keeping with the theme, here’s a list of lists I’m making in 2022/always keep running:
- Daily/weekend to-do lists
I make daily to-do lists divided into three sections: work, not work, and blog items. But then I’m (marginally) less structured over the weekends so I generally make a list of tasks I want to accomplish over the whole weekend, but don’t assign them to Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (unless it’s something out at a business that is closed on Sundays) and then I do them as I want to or feel like it. Or don’t, because I live on my own and it only impacts me if I don’t clean something.
- List of things I want to buy
- List of things I want to do in places I want to go
- List of goals for the year
- List of restaurants I want to try
- Rules for no-buys/low-buys
- List of places I want to go
- Grocery List/Meal Plan (I combine these in one note on my phone)
- Bar stocking list
This phrase seems weirder and weirder the more I look at, but I have been working on creating a well stocked bar so that if I want a cocktail I can just make it for myself (this isn’t a reason to be concerned about my alcohol consumption, it’s just that there’s not really anywhere to get a good cocktail in Sioux Lookout). So I have been slowly buying bottles of liquor, the tools, and this year I’ll hopefully be getting into glassware.
- “What would being rich look like for me”
- “Influenced”
Now this one could go two ways, it could be interesting to track the purchases you have been influenced into making, but my list is about the ways that other people/jobs/schools/etc. have influenced my habits, behaviors, and mannerisms. For example, one of the items on there is the way I write my 0s and 7s because of the way we had to write them on the eggs at the turkey farm (I have had some interesting jobs).
- Places that don’t ship to Canada
- Needlepoint design ideas
I have been toying with the idea of painting some of my own canvases, and I have more ideas on this list than I thought I did!
- Books I Want to Read/Own
- Dance Movies Marathon
- Apartment shopping list (which I hadn’t looked at in a long time and I was able to check a bunch of stuff off it!)
- Moving Expenses (so that when I leave here I have an estimate of how much things cost for budgeting moving away)
- Podcast episode ideas for a podcast I’ve been thinking about starting since May 2020
- Recipes I want to try
- Debt Snowball Tracker
- Blog Post Ideas/Schedule
- List of needlepoint projects I am working on and their status
This is one of those excel sheet items I was talking about. I’m going to make a system for tracking them, do I have the threads to stitch the project and their lot numbers (important for making sure the threads match exactly), am I self-finishing or sending it out, if so where? etc.
- Movies/TV shows I want to watch
So as you can see I make lists for literally everything from the mundane to the meaningful. Some I’ve had going for years. Like my outfits I want to try one, I started it in 2014 towards the end of my exchange on my iPod Touch while I was in Milan. I even still remember the first outfit that made me write it down. This incredibly chic girl was wearing a long hot pink skirt with a silky black tank top and a black leather jacket. I didn’t see her shoes, but even though I didn’t particularly enjoy Milan as a destination, it’s reputation as a fashion town is deserved and was hugely impactful for me, and I continue that list to this day. Wild.
A side note, if you are a list keeper like myself, especially if you keep a bunch in the notes app on your phone, go through them, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.
Do you keep any lists that aren’t on this list?
Laura
Thoughtful Millennial 