Love your lists

Why we can’t get enough of lists
Love your lists? The average person has 33 things on their to-do list each day (publishing this blog is top of ours today!) And to-do lists are just the tip of the iceberg – most of us also have shopping lists, party invite lists, reading lists, bucket lists, birthday wish lists, lists of school uniform to buy, and long-term personal goal lists on the go too.
The number of lists we need to impose order on the chaos seems endless. Which is why making sure your lists are mindful, purposeful and achievable is…well…top of the list!
Whether it’s a list of your 2025 goals, or your meal plan for the week, lists make things happen. That’s why you should learn to love your lists!
Why we love making lists
We’ve been making lists for over 5,000 years – because they work. To-do lists are a place to capture tasks, as much as they’re prompts to do them.
Lists help us prioritise what’s urgent, and what can wait a day. They ensure nothing gets forgotten, and at the same time make us feel purposeful, and proud of ourselves.
The act of writing a list and getting everything down on paper helps us to focus and organise. We can see the size of the mountain to climb – and the to-do list will get us to the summit.
Why does list-making make us feel better?
Lists have a surprisingly powerful effect on our emotional wellbeing. Making a list is rewarding in itself. You can feel proud of just how much you’re juggling, how much you’re capable of and just how much you’re able to achieve.
And by capturing those commitments on a list, we tend to worry less about them. Research shows that writing down all our tasks means we’re demonstrably more likely to get them done. That makes us feel secure, and in control.
If it’s on your list, it’s on your radar, and you’re halfway there!
List making the mindful way
Love your lists. Take your time to create the list itself and enjoy the making of it.
Most of our brand ambassadors choose the Sarasa Clip gel pen (0.5 or 0.7mm) for list making because of its water-based ink that is acid free and archival quality. It’s super-smooth, quick drying and feels like you could write all day (you’d never get any of the tasks done, but you’d have enjoyed making the list).
Amber and Sophie also favour the 0.7mm Ola gel, a retractable gel pen that glides across the page. It has a unique rubber grip providing a comfortable hold, meaning that writing your list is far from being a chore! The Ola is available as a 3-pack from Asda and 2-pack from Home Bargains.
You can always use a Mildliner marker or Mildliner Brush pen too, to colour code different areas of your life, or for different levels of urgency.
5 steps to making the list you love
- Make a long list capturing absolutely everything, in any random order. A brain dump.
- Next, prioritise by level of urgency and deadline. One urgent task per day.
- Then time them! Be realistic, and then add on an extra fifteen minutes to every task – because we all get side-tracked, and we’ve all got to eat.
- Curate a daily or weekly to-do list, editing as you go. For larger tasks, try breaking them down into bite sized stages so you achieve your end goal one step at a time.
- Don’t miss yourself off the list! Always put 30 minutes of me-time on your daily to-do, whether that’s for journalling, meditating or taking a walk.
Know yourself – know your limits
The ideal to-do list for a day should have no more than 7 items. Obviously, a bucket list can have many more, but then, there’s no hard and fast deadline.
Making an effective to-do list means knowing when you’re about to overstretch yourself and feel you’ve not done yourself justice. That can be very damaging for your self-esteem, as well as your workload. If your list of tasks times out at more than 5 hours, try delegating a task back to the person that originated it, or – controversially! – deleting it. It’s amazing how liberating that can feel. 😉
The magic of writing lists
List making is a little piece of everyday magic. It makes the impossible look possible, it can avert catastrophe, avoid last minute panics or late charges, and best of all, it gives us a real sense of pleasure and achievement.
That’s why you should love your lists.