Lists

August 4, 2014

Greetings from first thing’s first,

For most people there is an almost invisible line between order and chaos. We are aware of the disorderly wild confusion that spins around us, but we build a fragile wall of order to give ourselves the sensation of calm and control. It is a little bit of a buffer between us and the descent into bedlam.

We create this wall by using tools. Some of them are philosophical, some religious, some mathematical, some hypoallergenic. Some tools help us ignore the chaos and cope by sheer hilarious delusion. Some are practical, ordinary techniques. One of these practical tools is making lists.

If you don’t make lists for some reason you may fall into one of two categories. One, you have nothing to do. Or B, you just trust your memory to deal with the vagaries of life that keeps you from being run over by the circus each day. Or four, you are an alien from another solar system.

Lists are marvelous things, and they are not just for overachievers. They are not all ‘To Do’ lists, some are ‘To Consider’ lists. No real commitment, you are simply making the list to look at all of your options. Later, when deadlines are expiring and threatening phone calls are exploding around you, the more formal, refined list can be created for final action. Or defense strategy. So even a seasoned procrastinator can enjoy a good list.

There are shopping lists, or phone calls to be made, or people to organize, or list of horses to bet on. Moses made that one list, but it was not really a ‘to do’ list. Sometimes lists are random, sometimes they are prioritized with Venn Diagrams and rhyming footnotes. But you don’t have to go to those extremes. If that’s how you want to be.

Some lists are just Preliminary Lists, before you actually get to the meat of the list making:

1. Make list of things to do.
2. Cross check with list from yesterday
3. List all of the duplicates, and create a separate list for new items.
4. Create a complementary list for things that you remembered later.
5. If at any time the number of lists exceeds 4, take three of the lists and sort them alphabetically and then shred them. Start a small fire with the shredded paper and then burn the fourth list.
6. Start a fresh list.

I have lists to contend with almost every day. Some are mental lists, some are on my phone or my laptop, some are scribbled on legal pads. Some are numbered, others lettered, with check boxes, circles, arrows. I have neon highlighters and little stick-on stars for the really important items. I occasionally will draw small stick figures next to each item which are demonstrating action that might be taken for each. I’m a hieroglyphicalister.

Obviously, at least to me and everyone I have asked about this, there is only one compelling reason for all of this list making. In fact it has nothing to do with organization or efficiency or keeping track of important stuff.

The principal reason for creating a list is so that you can ‘check things off’ when they are completed. The act of putting an X or a check mark or a bold, decisive line through the entire line showing that you have conquered that item. It is done and you did it.

The Check Off is possibly one of the most satisfying things a human can do. It is such a feeling of accomplishment, even if the item on the list is ‘Check Off Something On the List Today’. Not everyone will admit it, but some people will accomplish something, and then add it to a list just so they can Check It Off. Silly huh? Not if you did it.

I know some people who make lists almost compulsively, with no real intention of ever doing anything about the list other than creating it. Perhaps admiring it. Perhaps making lists of lists. I’m not sure how common this compulsion is but there is a word that was created to describe it; glazomania. (I was sure that had something to do with doughnuts) There is no known cure. I know it was on someone’s list to work on but…

List making has its practical function but really it is a filter to sift the flotsam and jetsam that careens at us each day. It is a way of coping with overwhelming stuff that comes at us from the universe, seemingly unbidden from the dark chaos that was previously mentioned in the first paragraph.

For me, it is a sleep aid. Once something is committed to a list, I don’t worry that I’ll forget it or that it will take a back seat to lesser important things. It helps the mind sort through what is otherwise random thoughts floating around in the vast space between my two ears. Those things that appear at 2 am looking for a place to worry.

The universe sends us chaos and we sort it into manageable bites and then check off the things we did in response. It is part art form and part accounting method. It is an emblem of man’s eternal struggle to justify his existence in the cosmos.

Well, mostly it’s just fun to do the Check Off.

Hope this finds you in order,

David