The Humble List: A Few Words about a Powerful Tool

“Lists really get to the heart of what it is we need to do to get through another day on this planet.”?-- Scott Schaffer, Associate Professor, Western University

As someone who does a lot of writing for work, I’ve come to think of lists as the most basic, bare-bones form of writing there is. You have an idea rattling around your head, you reduce it to a few words (or one word) and write it down. That quick note will free up some brain cells and bring the item back to mind when you revisit your list.

The kinds of lists we use on a regular basis include --

• Shopping list: a list of items to be purchased, such as a list of groceries.
• To-do?or?task?list: a list of pending tasks. It is an inventory tool which serves as an alternative or supplement to memory.
• Roster: a list of people scheduled to participate in a task, such as employees of a company, or athletes set to participate in a sporting event
• Wish list: an itemization of goods or services that a person or organization desires
• A list of?pros and cons?can help us arrive at an answer to a tough decision.

And then there’s the?checklist, which deserves its own special category. In the world of lists, the checklist is a workhouse.

We often use the terms interchangeably, but lists and checklists are different animals. A list can be a to-do list, a pro-and-con list, or even a list of things you like about your spouse. But a checklist is something else. A checklist is a formula for getting something accomplished. All sorts of mistakes can be avoided with a simple checklist. – Paula Rizzo, author of?Listful Thinking:?Using Lists to Be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed

Or, from another perspective, a checklist is a job aid used in repetitive operations to reduce failure by compensating for the limits of human memory and attention. (Consider the airline pilot: “Here are all the things we need to do before the plane takes off.”)

Uses of lists

You can see the power of lists in their primary uses: as a memory aid, bringing order to chaos, and in the case of the checklist, guarding against failure. A brief roundup of uses –

• Clarity and organization. Lists break down complex information into manageable chunks, making it easier to read and understand.
• Hierarchical order. A list can show the importance of a sequence of items, helping to prioritize information.
• Time saving. Lists allow for quick scanning and comprehension.
• Conciseness. Presenting information in list format can make text more approachable and easier to absorb.

And then there are more whimsical uses --

• Reveal trends or popularity (e.g., a list of bestselling books or top-grossing movies).
• Entertainment (for example, David Letterman’s Top 10 lists).

Beyond the entertainment factor, Paula Rizzo writes that list-making has psychological benefits.

There’s a therapeutic and calming effect to writing a list. Getting the thought out of your head and into a central location allows us to be less stressed about having to remember something. If it’s written down or stored in your phone, you don't have to remember to remember it.

And an article by Claire Hammond (“Stressed? Writing down a to-do list might help”) offers a scientific explanation. Hammond describes a psychology concept called “cognitive offloading.”

She reports that cognitive offloading happens when a person takes a physical action to relieve a mental load. And writing a list does appear to meet the definition.

Hammond cites a small university experiment where participants who wrote a detailed to-do list fell asleep more quickly than participants who did not write a list. In other words, deliberately engaging in some cognitive offloading may lower a person’s stress level.

In summary, a list is a powerful and flexible tool that can enhance clarity and efficiency. Lists can transform complex information into an easily digestible format, helping us navigate day-to-day life.

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Worth a look --

Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed?by Paula Rizzo

The Checklist Manifesto?by Atul Gawande