Let me list the ways I list

I love a good list, almost as much as an excellent strawberry tart.

Attributes of an excellent strawberry tart:

• crisp pastry shell
• thin layer of dark chocolate
• velvety crème patisserie
• fresh strawberries.

I use lists to:

• remember the names of meeting rooms
• make me feel guilty about the friends I need to call, see or write to
• make my online content easier to scan (is it working for you?)
• maintain the façade of a multi-tasking super wonder mum (there is a sub-list of the ways in which I am not achieving this).

I’ve graduated from jottings in a very nice Japanese diary (mum work), to MS Outlook tasks and pushy mobile apps (office work).  I thought this would ramp up my home-life productivity performance indicators, but it’s making my personal tasks a bit scary.

Alert – buy that birthday card!

Alert – pay the nanny!

Alert – try to find out the name of the thing that person told you not to forget!

Alert – your brother and wife are having a baby!

Reasons why I still love lists:

• adding a task to a list is practically the same as starting something
• starting something on my list is almost like being complete
• if I write it down, I will clear some brain space for something else
• ticking things off makes me feel like a Winner and an Achiever.