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March 2 Today I will:

PROMPT March 2nd ▼

Write about the practice of making lists. Does list-making stifle creativity, or enhance it? When working on a big project, does making a list help organize your thinking, or cause you to feel more overwhelmed? Are you a habitual list maker, and if so, what do you list?

For the past 5 years I have kept a daily journal in Microsoft One Note. One Note is in a cloud so though I always begin on my desktop in the morning with my first cup of coffee, it is available to me on my iPad and my iPhone all day long. I actually now have 5 journals one for each year since 2015. In my journal I keep a section for internet receipts, a section for a budget and financial goals, and a section for each month. To the monthly section I add a journal page each day. Occasionally I miss a day but most days begin with the weather that morning, how I'm feeling, what may have happened the night before, just random thoughts and the ordinary stuff of life to get my morning started. I often will put a quote I ran across that I want to keep or sometimes a photo. But it always includes a list like:

Today I will:
         1. defrost chicken for dinner tonight
         2. do laundry,
                   +wash and dry
                   +fold and put away
         3. write a poem using onomatopoeia for Poet's Cafe
         4. write blog for 30 Day Blog Challenge
         5 find and comment on a published poem for Pursue the Horizon
         6. pull weeds in front yard
         7. send Luann a birthday card

Obviously the above is for a day when I am not scheduled to go to my office. One Note has an icon check-off square so I can check things off as I do them. I don't sweat it if I don't check everything off every day. If it doesn't get done, it just goes to the next day. But the list helps me organize my thoughts and serves as a reminder that certain things need doing. I used to include, make the bed, do dishes. Those things just naturally get done but it felt good to check them off the list when they did But my lists were getting so long that I stopped including regular everyday actions. I do the same thing at the office. My computers there are on a closed system so I cannot download my personal One Note program but I really don't need to because I have it on my iPad and phone. But a Word suite is included on my work computers separate from my personal One Note. So when I arrive at the office, I go to my calendar, note appointments then go to One Note and create an office list for the day there.

I believe my lists provide order and direction to my days which gives me freedom to create at will.

list of intent
serves as reminder
throughout day
                   ~~jvg