Making a List

I couldn’t believe I saw a Santa poster in the store the other day. Come on, Santa. Give the Easter Bunny a break.

Thankfully, there were no reindeer, elves or presents in sight – just Santa checking his list. I thought he just checked the Naughty or Nice list in December. Perhaps this was a different list. A grocery list? A to-do list? A wish list? Maybe it was a list of lists. Don’t laugh. Those things really exist.

Seriously. I found a Harvard Business Review article that identified checklist categories: task list, coordination list, troubleshooting list and more. There was even an interview with the surgeon/author, who wrote The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right. It got a lot of 5-star reviews on Amazon, but I’m not running out to buy it. I understand why surgeons use checklists and I’m glad that they do. I’m glad that there are realtor checklists. I’ve never forgotten the day we went to closing and came home without a house due to an important detail that had been missed. Checklists are good for lots of things, but they don’t work for me.

I remember reading a book on organizing your household. It involved making lists of everything that needed to be done. By the time I finished writing all those lists, I felt too exhausted to do anything on them. Diets that involve listing everything you eat were also a failure. I kept the list in a small notebook, which I invariably forgot to take to work with me. So I’d write things on a piece of paper and forget to take it home. Arriving home, I’d try to fill in the notebook from memory. That was a strain, so I’d grab a bowl of ice cream to help me relax. When I still couldn’t remember, I’d decide to start again the next day. Then I’d head to the kitchen for a bit more ice cream.

Did I ever have a successful list? Yes, I’m pretty good at keeping a grocery list. Of course, that’s no guarantee that Calico will remember to take it to the store!