The purpose of maintaining several types of lists is to have clearly defined parking spaces for your ideas and to-do items. This makes it easy to quickly add new items to a list, and easy to find what you are looking for when you need it.
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List of goals
What do you want in life? What’s your career ambition? Do you want to work in another business, or in another country? Want to get married and have kids? Want to retire early?
This is the list of things to stretch for. This is the list of things that require long-term planning and hard work. Don’t be afraid to put things on this list. It’s not like this is a permanent list with a limited number of spaces.
You should review this list at least every sixth month.
Contacts list
I’m surprised by the number of people around me who have, at some point in time, lost all phone numbers and other information on friends and colleagues just because their phone or computer was lost or stolen.
I treat contact information as valuable data. This means that I regularly back up my phone using Jotta Cloud, besides using Google Contacts as my sync hub between my phone and my computers
Task list / To do list
The to do list is among the most common types of lists and also the most misused type of list. (Picture: Pixabay)
I have written a lot about task lists. Of course, I would recommend you to use the GTD methodology, but even if you don’t do that, a task list is better than no task list.
Waiting for list
This is a useful list for anyone who is delegating work or is dependent on input from others to get work done. The simple act of following up on people who have not responded to your emails not only make sure that you get what you need but also shows that you have control.
List of books to read / Movies to see
Whenever you hear about a good book or see a trailer for a movie that you would like to see, put it on a dedicated list. The same goes for theatre plays or comedy shows and concerts. After I started to have a dedicated list for this, I feel that I’m able to experience the things I want to experience instead of ending up with what Netflix recommended or what was at the top of the list in the in-flight entertainment system.
gift list
Ideas list
Sometimes you have a really good idea. It can be how to solve a problem at work, or how to improve the toaster. It does not matter if it’s a million dollar idea or an idea about how to build a bench around the tree in the garden.
The idea (pun intended) behind this list is to create a place that you can access quickly to be able to document the idea before it is lost due to the “buy cat food” reminder on your phone.
Bucket list
Someday/maybe list
Unlike your Bucket list, your someday/maybe list should consist of things that you maybe consider doing someday. The whole point with this list is to store the link to that sky-diving class you found online or that great article on how to get started as a vine collector.
Packing list
One of my favorite types of lists is the packing list. Technically I have several lists which I combine into one long list. The content of the final list is dependent on where I’m going, what type of travel (work or vacation) and the length of my stay.
Grocery list
Having a dedicated grocery list, and having the discipline to add “oranges” to the list when you take the last one out of the fridge is one of those things that can remove a lot of friction in your life. I have earlier mentioned Listonic, which is my dedicated app for shopping lists.