Lists

I think I get list making from my father...I'm not sure if he'd admit to it, but we always had lists in our house (disguised as charts for many years -with shiny stars to lick and stick beside our names when we finished washing the dishes or raking the yard -I can still taste the paste...)


Currently I have a fancy electronic hand-held device to input and categorize data for me. It can prioritize my to do lists, and even beep when something is due but y'know what? I never use it. I always fall back to pen and paper, there's something about physically striking a line through an objective that makes it feel completed.

I think lists keep me sane - I only say that because recently I've been feeling like I'm going a bit crazy, and I've also stopped making lists...Coincidence? I think not.


Here's a list of essential lists for me:

to do lists - for school, for my car, for cleaning, for family (b-days, e-mails, blogging etc) -OK, so now I have a list of 'to do' lists....

shopping lists - this one is usually made as I'm walking down the aisles as one item will indubitably remind me of something else I need to buy

packing lists - be it camping, a weekend trip to Tokyo or a month in Thailand (I wish). I should have a template for this one...I always forget the same things (tweezers come to mind - everyone needs tweezers)

Christmas card lists - arranged first by association: family, friends, co-workers etc., then by likelihood of it being delivered/mailed (i.e. if I have the correct address), and then by actual Christmas card: fancy and glittery for Mother and Godmother, witty and bizarre for the brothers....

mailing lists - e-mail and snail mail - if people would just stay in one spot, this one would be easy to manage!!


and last but not least:

THE list - you know what I mean, we all have one: Drive an F1 car, spend a year backpacking around the globe, sky dive in the Grand Canyon, get a Masters degree, marry a sugar daddy....this is the ultimate list that gets shorter or longer depending on my current state of mind, it changes, sometimes year to year, sometimes day to day. It's an unwritten list for me, but it exists nonetheless, and of course, it's my favorite list -especially when I get to cross something off of it!


What have you crossed off YOUR list lately?