Make a List │ Getting Things Done

Like many of you, I am a list-maker. I find them to be one of the most rewarding things I can do in my little life. Well, that and drinking coffee and wearing vintage. But, I digress.

List-making really only consists of three things: paper, a pen, and your brain.

While there are myriad articles and books on tidying up and minimal living (both of which I fully embrace), living a simple and minimal life can also start just by making a list.

So, why should you write a list?

Three reasons: it's simple, it's in front of you, and anyone can be master of their world with one.

Yes, dare I say master of your universe. Pretty amazing, right?

That little list holds your sanity, order and clarity. And those are all we really need.

Check out this list I wrote the other day: I listed the errands I had to run (go to post office, then to Salvation Army and Goodwill to find my vintage to sell).

I listed the work I had to do (list two items items for sale on my vintage Etsy site, and find an outlet -- meaning a writing outlet, as in a journal or magazine I want to submit to).

And of course, read. I have to read. I get to read!

I've made other lists before with laundry or cleaning the kitchen as part of it. This may seem silly. But when they're on that list, I do them. And getting them done means scratching them off the list.

And if I don't do anything else other than the to-do items on the list, I feel accomplished. I feel like I got somewhere, like things are under control.

See that "write something" circled? Yeah, it was the last thing I had to do. (Some days, it's first, but that day, it was last.)

Writing is a big one I try to do every day. If I'm not being creative, I don't feel like I'm doing what I was created to do. Even if it's small, like a journal entry, or blog post, or a poem, that counts! That makes me a writer.

Side note: I'd like to say to putting the list on your phone is not helpful.

I've done this before and it may work for some folks, but it doesn't work for me. I need the list visible; I need it on a sticky-note so I can take it with me wherever I want. And I need to literally cross it off that list to be master of my universe.

Make that list. Get stuff done, people. If it's cleaning out the fridge, or teaching your class you teach every day, or picking up the dry cleaning, put it on the list, do it, and check it off.

Honestly, some of that list will make you feel accomplished just for being alive and other things on that list will get done because you'll feel accountable to it.

This is a major victory. This is organization.

So, three things: paper, pen, and your brain. Get that party going, write a list every day (or every night for the next day -- which I prefer to do) and watch your little world be all that it can be.

-HJS