‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man or woman in search of something useful must be in want of a good list’.

I live my life by lists, and this has become an ever present ‘to do’ need in managing my life, especially at this time of mind-numbing lockdowns. In the longer term my hope is that it helps me keep my memory active and importantly continuing to infuriate those around me.

I began a quite different list this year. Due to sloth, I did not begin it in the March Lockdown. As we eased out of the first Lockdown in the Summer, reflecting on the maelstrom of words and phrases being presented to me each day created, or being repurposed during the pandemic, I scribbled a long list of this new lexicon onto a random A4 sheet of paper. The aim was to remind me of the new ‘word world’ I was living in. After each new crisis and announcement, I proceeded to lengthen the list

The wider need by others to use lists to help them manage their lives was recently reinforced for me by the publication of Paula Rizzo’s book, ‘Listful Thinking: Using Lists to be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed’.

She explains that research shows that writing something down solidifies goal setting making it more attainable. In fact, if you commit a goal to paper you have more than a 30% chance of reaching it. Establishing a routine of list making, perhaps at the beginning or the end of each day, be it a high level list of Life Goals or a simple ‘to do’ list of daily chores will, if achieved, provide you with a sense of accomplishment as you tick each success off. If they are not achieved, then you simply create another list and carry on regardless. Perhaps this could be one of your New Year resolutions ,which of course can be a long or short list?

Perhaps for the Library it should be to add List Books to its book buying list for 2021?

The Random Blogger.

 

 

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