Lists, Lists, Lists

Hello, my name is Patty and I'm an obsessive "lister."

My to-do lists are often as long as my must-read lists, and believe me, those are long ones, often further cataloged by genre. One list per genre, obviously. What's the point in keeping all of those lovely books unsorted? My Amazon wish list, until just the other day, included a whopping 876 titles. I have self-improvement lists, task lists, curriculum lists, long-term goal lists, short-term goal lists, menu lists, grocery lists, character development lists (I dabble in a bit of creative writing on the side), and well, the list (ha ha) is endless. Today's list contains directives on making a few last Christmas-related online purchases, reminders about pending appointments, last-ditch motivational pleas to myself to complete and/or start a handful of homemade gifts, and of course, a daily affirmation or two--itemized of course. Do these all keep me on task? Well, of course not, but I'm always hopeful that they will help me stay on task whenever I begin a new one. At the very least, I like to think of them as reminders. I have a terrible memory, and if something is not written down, I'm apt to forget it. Writing things down, whether these are plans, goals, or whatever, makes them more concrete, and therefore seemingly more attainable. Seemingly. Now, writing them on this blog means another thing entirely--accountability.

I obsess about any number of things really, but listing things is high up there on my, um, LIST of quirks. I am certain to never consciously leave home without a paper and pen handy, as I'd surely be lost without them. (Oh, and it must be a pen. The right sort of pen, too. But that's a whole other issue. I swear I can write yet a whole other blog post or two about my fascination with pens. I'm less stuffy about the paper I use, although I do drool over nice quality paper stock, a symptom I think, of having worked in the publishing industry years ago. But I digress...) I write lists, keep lists, and even contemplate future lists. I have even been known to recopy lists. These are things I do practically non-stop.

I first realized that I had a "problem" a while back when I stepped out of my home without, (Gasp!), a writing instrument. Seems as if someone, possibly a little someone, entered my purse and extracted my pen. After a thorough search of my purse which ended with most of its contents poured out onto my lap (that's a lot of stuff, by the way), I came to the realization that I didn't even have anything I wanted to write down. Nope, not a single thing. Perhaps if I had wanted to write a list at all at the time, it would have included just one item. "Double-check purse for writing instrument before leaving home." But of course, one item does not a list make. I reference this story because along with the "not-having-anything-to-write" realization, came another more enlightening one. Had I been in possession of a pen, I would have just come up with something to write. Yes, possibly in list form. So for me at least, having the right instruments, or vehicles of expression at my disposal, can sort of goad on a bit of list creativity. And seeing as most, but not all, of my lists consist of tasks that need to be done, I invite yet another factor into the equation. I am also seeking to sort out priorities and organize the "to-do" chaos that is often undecipherable in my head.

What can all this mean, and what does this say about me? Well, some people seem to think it's a sign of artistic genius, or rather that incidentally, many great artists have had this obsessive list-making trait. Seriously! Oh boy, you better believe I considered jumping on that bandwagon immediately as I'm a wannabe great artist and all that! More likely however, as boring as it may seem and as much as I hate to admit it, perhaps it's just all part of human nature to catalog things on personal lists. And perhaps those who consider themselves list-writers can be further divided into groups, as the BBC article I've hyperlinked suggests. If I had been in charge of dividing them, I'd have done it differently...perhaps classifying these as occasional list writers and obsessive list writers. I just happen to fall into the latter group. Yes, perhaps this list making trait is all haphazard and ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but then again, maybe it's not. I mean, perhaps the level of obsession is relative to the level of genius?

Should I develop an insatiable urge to paint something magnificent, I'll be sure to come back and update.