Make Lists

WHY

We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.

Your brain is a processing unit, it takes input stimuli and generates output responses. When this happens, we call it experience.

Let's stray from the context for a moment, because this is important. Memories are the virtual re-runs of past experiences. The last time a tiger was behind you, you felt fear; your loved one hugged you, and you felt love; you trekked mountains, and you felt exhilaration.

However, most of our experiences nowadays come virtually, through movies, TV series, reels, posts of other people, alcohol, and more. Rarely do we engage in real experiences ourselves anymore. We touch and tickle our devices more than our loved ones. It's a cheap way to make memories, as it requires no actual effort or experience.

And because people don't seem to observe or care, the business of manufacturing fake memories has become the biggest industry of our time. Consider just three platforms, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, consuming 3.5 billion human hours daily. What are they doing? Creating fake memories for people and making a lot of money for themselves.

Now, we are all blessed with a full lifetime to explore, enhance, and leverage the capabilities of our brain. To choose meaningful topics to ponder and utilize all our cognitive abilities is what we must strive for to make the maximum impact. And this is where the purpose of making lists comes in.

If you don't make lists, you are left to rely on memory for all the things you need to get done. That rarely works. Even if you do manage to remember some tasks, it feels like a strenuous effort, doesn't it? Why? Because your brain functions like a processing unit, designed to start, process, stop, and repeat as needed. While it has the ability to remember, it's not a data storage device in the traditional sense.

Remembering is an ongoing, continuous task, meaning the brain's processing never truly stops. Despite accounting for less than 2% of total body weight, the brain consumes approximately 20% of the body's energy at rest, making it highly energy-intensive. Therefore, assigning it the task of remembering drains both energy and cognitive resources, leaving less capacity for tasks that require focus and mental effort.

The problem in the real world is to identify the problem. Solutions are often simpler, they are processes that your brain, a computer, Google, ChatGPT, or countless tools can handle. But unless tasks are written down, they remain vague, unaligned with stakeholders, and, for all practical purposes, nonexistent.

Making task lists, on the other hand, brings clarity, ensures timely feedback, and creates an undeniable presence for tasks in the real world until they are completed. If you are going to work, you certainly don't want to waste time on the wrong problem. Task lists help you avoid rework and wasted effort.

Without a list, prioritization becomes impossible, and that's disastrous. Imagine working on a one-dollar puzzle while neglecting a million-dollar puzzle, all because you didn't prioritize.

Unfortunately, the smaller, less significant tasks are usually easier and more enticing for your cognitive abilities. Without prioritization, you end up stuck in a loop, procrastinating and never tackling the most important tasks, the ones that could change your life forever.

Worse still, after completing a task, choosing the next one becomes a task in itself. You have probably experienced how exhausting that can be, by the time you decide, you are too drained to begin.

Forgetfulness is another direct consequence of not making lists. When forgotten tasks resurface at inconvenient times, they increase stress and anxiety. Repeated episodes of this put you in a constant state of fear, even when there's no real reason to worry.

When forgotten tasks eventually demand attention, they throw your otherwise planned schedule into chaos. This mismanagement feels overwhelming, making it even harder to focus on your actual work.

Task lists are also invaluable for delegation. They allow tasks to be assigned cumulatively, timely, and unambiguously, making it easy to track progress. This is especially crucial when working in teams, where efficient collaboration often determines success or failure.

In today's agile work environment, fast-tracking related tasks is critical for completing projects efficiently. Time is by far the most precious resource, and task lists help identify which activities can be tackled simultaneously. This proactive approach to resource allocation creates immense value for organizations managing multiple projects with shared resources.

Life is a celebration of existence. You might be a super-efficient machine, tackling tasks as they come and completing them one by one. But without a list to track your progress and achievements, this approach quickly becomes monotonous, disheartening, and uninspiring.

Seeing progress, the tasks moving from your planned lists to completed lists, builds momentum, uplifts morale, and generates positivity. It turns those moments into a source of happiness and fulfillment. It energizes you, allowing you to pursue your passions, be it movies, sports, or other activities, guilt-free. And when you return to work the next day, you will feel refreshed, stronger, and highly motivated.

WHAT

It is pertinent to ask, what are you supposed to make lists of?

Your incredible mind and body perform countless activities subconsciously, lungs breathing, stomach digesting, heart pumping blood rich with oxygen and nutrients, and so on. Then, there are tasks born out of habit, like brushing your teeth or taking a bath, which have become pseudo-subconscious. Ignoring these subconscious and habitual activities, everything else you aim to do or accomplish in life requires a list. This is the path to productivity.

As you can imagine, your mind juggles hundreds of things, which could span various domains: personal health, personal work, family matters, professional responsibilities, social contributions, and more. They may be urgent or long-term, trivial or critically important. However, they all matter, because their outcomes shape your life in one way or another.

Typical categories of lists you should make include goals, conflicts, tasks, and notes, among others. You can make lists for specific areas of your life, such as economic ( assets, liabilities, expenses, things to buy, etc.), social (family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances), leisure (favorite books, music, and movies--or ones you plan to read, listen to, and watch), and others.

Your lists don't have to be perfectly organized, but if an idea or concept is in your mind, it should find its way onto a list. The goal is to empty your mind onto paper (or its digital equivalent). That is the key.

Your lists should be comprehensive, not half-hearted. Take your tasks list, for example, it should include tasks you have to do yourself, tasks you need others to complete, and even tasks that may resolve automatically over time. Nothing should be overlooked.

If you are serious about achieving your vision, you must be ruthlessly exhaustive. Otherwise, what can go wrong, will go wrong. Your lists should be so detailed that, in the worst-case scenario where you lose all memory tomorrow, your life could still continue seamlessly.

Lists must reside in a specific, sacred place. It could be a notebook where each page is dedicated to a specific list, or a collection of notes in an app. Even if you use multiple devices, only one should serve as your list repository.

It should be your most accessible tool: a diary, a folder on your desktop, or an app placed in the bottom navigation of your phone. It should open with a single click or tap, allowing you to start writing with your second action.

The content of a list should be self-explanatory. A five-year-old should be able to comprehend the tasks. Use headings for categorization and plain text for individual items. Avoid formatting such as bullets, numbering, bold/italics/underline, or colors, which are distractions and add the unnecessary burden of maintenance, a non-value-adding task in itself.

Do not mix your lists, keep them sacred. For instance, a task list should only contain tasks that need to be done, and nothing else. It is not a generic notepad, sketchpad, or rough book. Similarly, completed tasks should be removed or moved to another list if necessary.

A list with mixed content, tasks and notes, or to-dos and completed items, creates mental clutter, requiring additional processing. In this regard, digital lists (where completed tasks can be deleted or moved easily) are slightly more efficient than pen-and-paper lists (where completed tasks can only be struck out but remain visible).

HOW

You have to write down an idea or a task as soon as it originates. The speed of articulating and documenting is critically important. Any delay will result in a significant drain on your cognitive energy. Not only does it violate the "Touch it Once" principle, but it also risks blurring the context and expected outcomes.

Equally important is the systematic articulation of your idea, ensuring it contains all the information organized in an expected manner. This reduces the burden of understanding at the time of execution. A description lacking structure can waste considerable time in recalling the context and details.

For tasks, I recommend using what I call the W5 structure, which explicitly outlines the Whom, Why, What, Way (How), and When for each task:

Whom: The stakeholders who will approve your work

Why: The purpose or end goal of your work.

What: The expected outcome or deliverables.

Way (How): The implementation steps.

When: The timeline.

The task structure reads: "For WHOM, to WHY, do WHAT, by HOW, before WHEN." For example:

"For James Bond, to catch the bad guys, do prepare his travel plan, by using secret databases and ChatGPT, before Dec 31, 2024."

"For myself, to write my new book on Time Management, do write down the gist of my most important learnings and experiences, by typing my thoughts into Scrivener, by Dec 31, 2024."

"For client A, to begin construction work at the project site, do develop and issue the building good for construction (GFC) drawings, by collaborating with architects and structural designers, before Dec 31, 2024."

Notice that it takes some effort to identify the 5Ws of any task. It may require collaboration, but it is well worth the effort. This approach eliminates rework, aligns stakeholders, and ensures clarity.

Once you have articulated the task, you don't need to remember anything until you begin (conserving energy) or contemplate anything once you start (ensuring efficiency).

The task will self-organize by category and priority, as it already contains all the necessary data. For example, you can use a simple search (Ctrl+F) to find tasks related to specific stakeholders.

You can devise similar smart approaches for other lists, such as goals, conflicts, and other items. There is no universally best method, choose one you feel comfortable using daily. The W5 approach can be adapted to suit any type of list.

Remove an item from a list as soon as it is completed or loses relevance. Free up space. If you prefer to keep track of completed items, move them to another list (a log or journal). Avoid keeping completed items in the same list or marking them as "done." Let them disappear from your active list.

Be reasonable, realistic, and sincere when defining items for your list. Avoid overly optimistic or strict timelines for tasks that are not urgent. Doing so dilutes the value of your list and forces you to track real information mentally, defeating the purpose of making lists in the first place.

Finally, adhere to the "Touch it Once" strategy when adding items to lists. It's generally unwise to jot down a short note for later elaboration, as this often turns into another task. Most of the time, you have enough opportunity to articulate the 5Ws of a task right away.

However, if it's not feasible to stop your current activity, maintain another list (e.g., "On-the-Fly Stuff") for such incomplete items. During your scheduled review, articulate and organize them into their respective lists.