The List Book

I wish I was super organized, never forgetting anything, with everything I need for daily life neatly labelled, properly filed, or even just simply in its rightful place. As I say it’s a wish the reality is slightly a lot different.

I am not hyper-disorganized but I sometimes feel that the only thing preventing me from crossing the Rubicon into catastrophic chaos is my to-do list. I am an inveterate list maker; they seem to act, for me at least, as magic charms and simply writing things down on them appears to ward off the possibility that said things might never get done. I also find it a great way of clearing my mind of clutter; I have on occasions, just before drifting off to sleep, leapt out of bed to add some just remembered item to my to-do list.

For years I kept my to-do lists on bits of paper but I have recently acquired The List Book which is divided into four sections, they are: To Remember, To Do: Now (the largest section), To Do: Soon, and To Do: Someday. I can’t claim the book has totally transformed my life but it certainly look a lot nicer on my kitchen table than various scribbled upon scraps of paper.

I bought The List Book in the Irish Design Shop a few months ago. It cost fifteen euro which isn’t cheap for a book that is filled mainly with lined blank pages but I feel it is well worth the money. There is much to love about it: the colours, the graphic design, the typography, the wipeable cover, the two ribbons for marking pages … And best of all on the very last page ‘done’ is typed in large capitals, let’s hope that when I get there that I will have everything on my lists ticked off!

I write everything I need to do, in no particular order, on my to-do lists. I know some form of prioritizing a to-do list such as marking urgent items A, less urgent one B, and ones that could be carried forward C, is often recommended – but I don’t bother. The best tip I know for dealing with a to-do list (I cannot remember where I read or heard it) is to do the most difficult thing on the list first and then everything else magically becomes more manageable.

Note: the idea and design of The List Book is by Aad a Dublin design consultancy and it is printed by Hudson Killeen.