Productivity - Ten Things to Do BEFORE You Make a List

What is a list, anyway? This definition from Urban Dictionary provides an emerging, if not already prevalent, 21st Century perspective:

1. The last tool for lazy writers who want to show how hip their knowledge is
2. A way for people's tastes to be researched, commodified, and totally exploited on online sites such as myspace.com
3. An item so overused in lieu of actually creating something, that it signifies the end of innovation and the impending apocalypse of popular culture.

With that in mind - or not, let's plunge "write" into Ten Things to Do BEFORE You Make a List.

1. Make sure you have something to make a list for...
(Ending an occasional sentence with a preposition is just the thing for a List Maker. It hints of an open-mindedness and lends itself to edgy anticipation.) Making a list FOR and making a list TO are different instruments of order in the List Makers repertoire and should not be confused. In fact, several prepositions may work as pivotal keyword drivers for different instruments of order.

Not all prepositions are right for everyone. You may want to make a list of prepositions you are most comfortable with...

Productivity suffers and falls when making a list adds little or nothing to the completion of a task, management of a project, or the creative process.

2. Make sure you have a sufficient number of items to list.
A list of two seems more than a little anal and probably wastes your time - unless you really are anal. Sufficiency, of course, is a function of what you're making the list for, or to, or whatever. Don't pad your list with redundant or unnecessary items just to make, say, a list of ten. A list of six or seven probably is a working minimum.

In special cases of really disparate things, a list of four may be necessary - but avoid getting into a habit of lists of four. This may be interpreted by others that you are suffering from an attention deficit disorder - when you're not. Of course, there's nothing wrong with ADD or the like. On your list of things to do later, you may want to add "make a list of good things about ADD."

Productivity is about process. There is no such thing as a process of one or two.

3. Make sure you have a manageable number of items to list.
A list of 47 is next to impossible to think of holistically...and every list must be thought of as a whole. A piece, a project, a something to be completed. (Fragments are another effective device for List Makers. They show you are spontaneous and adaptable in your stream-of-consciousness outpouring. Helping to reenergize your creativity, too.)

Productivity requires time management, task management, and contact management. The scope and scale of management has limits.

4. Make sure your list syntax is concise and the items are easily distinguishable.
(Split verbs are another interesting device for List Makers. Dropping an adverb in the middle of a verb construction brings attention to the how of the action. Also, as here, it's much easier to remember how something is rather than distinguish what something is.)

Listing items with lots of explanatory verbiage may bring clarity to your list, but remembering what you're doing and why you're doing it can be tedious.

Productivity requires explanation and understanding integrated for action and results.

5. Make sure you have time to make a list.
If you have too much to do to make a list, make a list of friends - really good friends who know you well - to make a list or two for you.

If you don't have time for even this list of friend list-makers, use an audio recorder to mention things that need lists. In many cases, you can be doing what you must do and still use the recorder. When it is not feasible to use a recorder while doing some things you must do, fit your head with a brainwave recorder. You can think about things that need to be listed and it will be recorded that way. Later, you can play your brainwaves back and either record them aurally or go right to making the list. When you can, you probably need to consult Consumer Reports to make a list of the best audio recorders and best brainwave recorders.

Also, you may need a list of friends or even acquaintances with technical expertise so they can help you work out all the technical details. You wouldn't want to risk a systems crash and have all this mental energy lost.

Productivity involves more than just planning.

6. Make sure you have somewhere to keep your list once it is completed.
If you don't, there is a risk you will put your list somewhere and forget where you put it. There are physical places for hardcopy lists, like your refrigerator door (on the outside), your bathroom mirror (avoid prolonged hot showers as list items may blur or run together), the visor in your car, and so on. There are electronic places for digital lists, like your cell phone, PDA, computer, local ISP's, and the like.

You may want to consider making a list of places to keep your lists. To keep your list somewhere "outside the box," explore these options:

Ta-da Lists - the web's easiest to-do list tool

Lifehacker - Tech Tricks, Tips, and Dowloads for Getting Things Done

Intervals - Find Time

Productivity is everywhere. All you have to do is find it within yourself.

7. Make sure you will not be interrupted in m

__________

[Writer's Note: I would have finished the list, but UPS came and needed a signature, the FAX started spitting out dozens of pages, my girlfriend called on my cell, and my Beagle is trying to mount my Australian Shepard (he's an optimist), so I didn't have time...]

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