MIND MOVES: In psychological armoury, "the list" is a useful weapon of stress-destruction. The list involves writing down what one has to do and then doing it. Even the act of writing a list initiates psychological processes that encourage a more optimistic outlook on life, writes Marie Murray.
Beloved of time-managers, these inventories gather all anxieties, worries, troubles and tasks into neat written regiments of work to be done. One cannot do what has to be done without knowing what that is. A list fulfils that function.
Life without lists means relying on one's memory, which is at its least efficient when we have most to do. Lists convert cognitive ruminations into concrete tasks and worries into practical work.
Vacillation is replaced by a decisive action plan. Anxieties become achievable goals. Lists allow the articulation of concerns that otherwise drain emotional energy. Once a problem is aired it is altered. It becomes something to be solved.
Lists de-clutter the mind, transforming mental machinations into visible jobs. They prevent procrastination, particularly if the list includes a time plan for completion of the listed tasks. An unaltered list is an accusation: an inventory of idleness if it is not attended to. Lists challenge their creators to do the enumerated errands.
Lists are more than aide mémoires on the back of envelopes. List-making is an art form. Like all creative arts, each serious list-maker acquires his, or her, own personal style and stamp. Analysis of list-makers, based on how their lists are made, what is or is not listed, what detail their descriptions, what is prioritised, what time proposed for each chore's completion, the order of activities and the mode of deleting from the list tasks which have been done: all these factors reveal something about the inventors of inventories.
There are daily list-makers, weekly list-makers and advanced annual planners. There are spur-of-the-moment annotators and serial task setters. Sophisticated list-makers are those who would not undertake any activity without considering every possibility.
When beginning a list, some list-makers opt for stream of consciousness. Tasks are written as they come to mind, thereafter to be sorted in terms of "doability", desirability or urgency. Some list-makers create separate columns for personal and professional responsibilities, or they distinguish between urgent and aspirational activities.
Some people dedicate a notebook to everything they want to remember. Others use diaries. By writing a "to do" list at the beginning of each day, they make sure that all tasks have been tackled by the day's end.
For stress reduction to be achieved by list-making, certain criteria must be met. Lengthy, unrealistic lists are best avoided. People who are so stressed that they lose their lists and then list what they have lost, require time out rather than time management.
List-making should reduce stress. The initial inclusion of minor achievable tasks on a list is reassuring and encourages list-making as a regular practice. However, when planning one's daily work schedule, it is recommended that the task one dislikes most is not deferred, but is undertaken first each day, so that time is not wasted avoiding the inevitable.
This anti-stress strategy of "do what you dread" is psychologically liberating and frees energy for productive use.
The psychological profile of list-makers may be discerned in their lists. The tasks, their number and detail, realism or unreality, the legibility, size, slant and manner of writing, whether lists are in bullet points or in carefully constructed sentences, all provide further insight into list-makers.
For example, engineers are noted for meticulous lists in minuscule script, revealing the rationality of the organised mind. Proponents of "a place for everything and everything in its place", their lists are exact and executed efficiently.
Economists' share this penchant for concise, precise memory aids and immediate implementation. Medics are stereotypically distinguished by the illegibility of their lists but many are too overworked to enumerate anything. Architects tend toward diagrammatic depictions of things to do. Academics already accustomed to ranking are natural list-makers. Actors, who refrain from the mundane, prefer the ad hoc impulse of the opportune moment to do what must be done. No accountants' lists could omit time-costing or neat numbering of objectives. Computer buffs prefer hand-held hardware to program their lives, while doodles around the "to do" lists are the hallmarks of musicians, artists and advertisers.
As for the legal profession, evidence of list- making is scant. On the basis that what's written is legal, they may prefer to avoid written contractual lists of commitments, even with themselves.
The anti-stress ingredient in lists is that a line is drawn through each item as it is achieved, until nothing remains on that list to be done. Progress is visible, achievement is obvious and reward is immediate.
The paradoxical power of lists is that their success is achieved through erasure. Each is replaced by another. Each outlines its tasks and serves its time in assisting us to go on.
Marie Murray is director of psychology at St Vincent's Psychiatric Hospital Fairview.