The Power of Lists

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I love lists. I love writing down the things I have to do, but I love crossing them off the list even more. Mostly, I make lists for big projects, deadlines for the magazines, family stuff, and events.

          My daily errands and chores don’t need to be on a list. I know what I have to accomplish, but I decided to start making the lists anyway—why not? I love to cross off things. I’m now including on my lists small things I always mean to get to but don’t like clean out the junk drawer or donate some items.

          Funny, if it’s on the list it gets done a lot sooner.

          So now I’m making different lists—a bucket list for this year as well as for my life; places to visit with family and friends, a list of writing projects; a list of books I really want to read; cleaning/organizing lists for office and kitchen; and anything else that comes to mind.

          On my daily writer's list:

write at least three pages longhand in my monthly notebook;

read a page of The Writer’s Devotional by Amy Peters each day for a year;

randomly open Writing Fearlessly by William Kenower and read a passage or a page or a chapter for inspiration;

read from at least one other book as well as articles, essays, and/or poems;

write for at least one of my projects—book, screenplay, essays, or articles;

write my weekly Thursday essay for magazines and my blog posts or at least come up with topics;

fill out my Thought a Day Journal;

and plan, write, and/or edit the magazine issues for next month.

I do cross off every item on this list every day. I use The Ultimate Author’s Editorial Calendar and Writing Planner by Jennifer Ruggiero Schultz to keep organized. [Unpaid recommendation] It is big and unwieldy, but her daily page layout of lists works for me. Plenty of room to add tasks and track projects as well as record titles and page numbers of what I read, topics for essays and posts as well as what I wrote for specific projects, essay, blog, etc. Also places for lists of meetings/appointments and calls/emails, too.

There is a lot I want to see and do and accomplish—and I will get to all of it if it’s on one of my To Do Lists because I can’t wait to cross it off!