Good Things About Lists

Can calm us

Are flexible

Create order

Make meaning

Can change us

Improve focus

Reduce stress

Can console us

Can save lives

Create culture

Give us energy

Improve memory

Reduce anxiety

Can help us grow

Improve workflow

Reduce overwhelm

Boost brain power

Give us structure

Help us save time

Keep us organized

Can be therapeutic

Can be personalised

Can condense things

Can make us happier

Help relieve stress

Help us forget less

Help us plan things

Help us stress less

Bring order to chaos

Can help us delegate

Are easily digestible

Create accountability

Increase productivity

Reinforce information

Can give us objectives

Can improve our memory

Can serve as a compass

Help us stay organised

Are often easy to write

Can help us savour life

Help back up our memory

Help refresh our memory

Help us avoid confusion

Help us remember things

Help us think of things

Can help us achieve more

Help us prioritise tasks

Can be a way of moving on

Can be shared with others

Help us be more motivated

Help us categorize things

Make rereading a pleasure

Simplify big things to do

Allow us to combine things

Act as external memory aids

Cut out all the extra stuff

Are a way of writing a diary

Can be openended, unfinished

Can be used to clarify goals

Can help us reorganise tasks

Help us monitor our progress

Make infinity comprehensible

Can help us identify triggers

Can stop us forgetting things

Help us organize our thoughts

Make a task easier to process

Are a way of letting off steam

Can help us not miss deadlines

Can help us unburden ourselves

Help us manage our time or day

Can help us feel more organised

Can help us know our priorities

Help tasks seem more manageable

Can help us not feel overwhelmed

Can help us shake off depression

Help us keep track of everything

Help us manage tasks effectively

Can become art forms, like haikus

Can help us minimise distractions

Force us to define and to clarify

Make it easier to get things done

Can be as long or short as we like

Help us live in a more intense way

Help us parse and manage the world

Help us see our lives more clearly

Breathe fresh life into our writing

Give us a plan that we can stick to

Can be simple and elegant and ordered

Give us a panoramic view of our lives

Dampen anxiety about the chaos of life

Help us have some control of our lives

Make the important things more visible

Can help us see or understand a problem

Allow us to be as exhaustive as possible

Can make us feel organized and in control

Can help us think more deeply about a topic

Help us exercise restraint and self-control

Allow us to rethink and restructure our ideas

Can give us peace of mind and a sense of calm

Are effective, concise work and teaching tools

Can help us see different angles on same thing

We read and write them to become better people

Help us achieve maximum meaning in minimum words

Allow us to become more decisive and more precise

Help us accumulate information, signs and details

Leave us open to rescheduling and organizing time

Break down a task into bite-sized and doable chunks

Help us use time wisely and improve time management

Make it less likely we’re going to forget something

Can spur us on and motivate us to keep moving forward

Make a big hodgepodge of things simmer down and behave

Allow us to organize different things under one heading

Are the most concise form of expression available to us

Allow us to prioritize the tasks that are more important

Can increase our confidence, when we cross something off

Free up space in our minds for other more creative tasks

Are a great way to store, organise and transfer knowledge

Teach us to reduce the number of words and phrases we use

Can help us feel satisfaction, when we cross something off

Can transform our understanding of the world and ourselves

Help us get back to things when we are pulled away from them

Help us stay focused on the tasks that are the most important

Provide proof of what we have achieved that day, week or month

Can help us plan better by knowing what’s coming up in advance

Give us an entry point into a potentially unlimited exploration

Help things stick in our minds more, because we wrote them down

Reduce verbal fog that can conceal what we are trying to express

Allow us to clarify our thoughts and take the weight off our minds

Allow for an efficient transfer of value propositions to the reader

Can inspire us and open our heart and our head to deeper reflections

Can be a way of sorting, extracting, sweeping, discarding and purging

Show a fierce determination to understand life and to give it meaning

Are the best format for communicating our ideas and helping our readers

Give us a sense of progress and achievement, when we cross something off

Are a way of trying to put our lives in order, of finding the logic in it

Can help us get back after we finished with something that took our attention

Help us not to waste time on tasks that don’t require our immediate attention

Allow us to rid ourselves of the superfluous, so that only the essential remains

Can help us stretch time, punctuate it, measure it and collect its precious moments

Can help us divide our long-term goals into smaller, more achievable short-term goals

Permit the periodic sampling or polling of any large field of activity with maximum efficiency

Allow us to condense our experience in a profound, poetic way, to seize the essence of a moment

Help us employ short, succinct formulations that are easy to write, read, reread and understand

Are a practical way of saving time when we feel overwhelmed by everything we have to do or want to do

Can arouse in the reader a strange craving to acquire the knowledge displayed on the list in order to share its writer’s authority

Are the shorthand for what really matters to us: our hopes and aspirations, likes and dislikes, rules for living and loving, records of our memories and reminders of the things we want to do before we die