My favorite thing is a list

Jul 27, 2025

I found some interesting information the other day. I have 1,764 notes on my phone. A lot of them are half poems or things I have overheard, but a lot of them are things to read or do or cook or eat. I also have a huge screenshot problem. I love a list; I like crossing things off, but often I just move things to the next day for 43 days in a row. I have avoidance issues. Research says that long to-do lists are not that productive. I read that we should have fewer than 5 tasks per day or we get tired of the choices and let go, or move it on over to the next day. Or some people just are so cavalier they just crumple the whole list and forget about it. I laugh out loud at this. Ha. Ha. I am wild with my mind. I crave that dopamine hit I get when I cross something off. I can feel it and almost hear a Super Mario Bros video game sound play inside of my brain.

I recently discovered that the Queen Lena has a cool method for organizing her notes, and I fell promptly in because I kind of do this, but now I have some sort of tutorial and inspiration to make it work better for me with my writing projects.

Then I just went down a rabbit hole of lists. I love love love this piece by Joan Westenberg. WOW. It really made me think. She deleted everything. What a word. EVERYTHING.

But over time, my second brain became a mausoleum. A dusty collection of old selves, old interests, old compulsions, piled on top of each other like geological strata. Instead of accelerating my thinking, it began to replace it. Instead of aiding memory, it froze my curiosity into static categories. -Joan Westenberg

The marginalia always gets it.

This is interesting too.

Wiki has lists for every freaking thing.

And this. Who uses this?

I think I will always be frenetic, sloppy, and wild with my lists. But I’m interested in ways of working with them, to help me be more productive. Basically, I’m obsessed with how we make ’em and use ’em, and how other people’s brains work.

What do you use?

In addition to my notes app, I use journals—big fatty ones that look like novels. Here is my pricey one, and my cheap ones that I buy in bulk. (elite for cheap). I love the heft. I love to use them.