How to use three types of lists for life
By: Kaitie Chambers
Tags: Organization, Planning, Productivity, Tracking, Lists

From daily to-do lists to lifelong bucket lists, you have probably been using lists to help organize your life. With a little more time and planning, you can unlock so much more value from your lists in any area of life. Lists can become a powerful tool when designed and used effectively, and there are three types of lists that you should make regular use of to power up your productivity:

Tracking lists

Organizing lists

Planning lists

By understanding and implementing each type of list in your life, you’ll be more organized and less stressed in no time.

Tracking Lists

Let’s imagine that you’re trying to save up for something, and so you’re looking to stick to a budget. You have run the math and calculated how much you can spend in each area: groceries, rent or housing, utilities, child and health care, and little extra discretionary to have a bit of fun. Now in order to know how you’re doing with your spending, you could sit down every week or every month and add up all of the expenses on your bank statement. After adding everything up, you would compare the current spend with the budgeted amounts to know if you’re on track.

But this approach only gives you insight as a snapshot in time, and it’s hard to know how you’re tracking at any given moment to know if you can spend a little extra on that frozen yogurt, or go out for drinks with a friend. Instead, you could use a tracking list to log all of your expenses, which would give you real-time insight into how much you’ve spent for the month in each area, and whether or not you have extra room for something else. This is the practical power of a tracking list.

Tracking lists are lists that track information in order to provide you insights. The purpose of a tracking list is to inform your decision making by tracking items, behaviors, and other information. Whenever you feel like you need more information or a more realistic picture of your behavior to make changes or new decisions, you can consider using a tracking list to gather information to unlock those insights.

It’s also important to note, that tracking lists may appeal to different people for different reasons. Some people like tracking for tracking’s sake. You may be a Fitbit-wearing, food tracking maven who loves to see all the data about what you’re doing, eating, and spending. I know that joy- that used to be me! However, if that doesn’t sound like any fun to you, you can still make use of tracking lists. It’s just more important to be clear about what insights you need, and then use the tracking list until you have those insights and then move on. Just like any list, it’s meant to work for you. So if you feel like the list is no longer providing meaningful insights, feel free to stop using it once you have the information you need to make your decisions or change you habits.

Examples of tracking lists to try:

Time tracking list

Budget tracking list

Water consumption list

Food tracking list

Mood tracking list

Activity tracking list

Habit tracker

Inventory tracking list

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Organizing lists

Let’s imagine that you love to read books (or watch movies or play games) and that you are always asking friends, peers, and colleagues about their favorite books. Every time someone tells you about one of their favorites that sounds interesting, you take a mental note, or write it on a scratch piece of paper or send yourself an email with the book name. Then, a week later, after finishing the page turner you just devoured, you’re ready to find your next book. You head to the library or book store, and you just can’t remember the name of that great book Juan recommended and that piece of paper you wrote it down on got lost on your desk somewhere. So you spend 30 minutes browsing through the aisles trying to remember while reading cover after cover to find something you’ll like.

This approach can bring about some hidden discoveries, but it can also waste a lot of time, and prevents you from connecting with others through their recommendations. Instead, you could use an organizing list to capture all of the book recommendations you get and those you hear about in any context. The list can organize the books by genre and topic so that you can easily sort through the list to find your next book based on what you’re in the mood for- and all in a matter of minutes. You can go from one page turner to the next, and always have a place to put those great recommendations from friends. That’s the practical power of organizing lists.

An organizing list is a list of items grouped by a relevant topic and organized into categories. The purpose of an organizing list is to organize large and ongoing amounts of information to make if more digestible and referenceable in the future. Whenever you find yourself with related information in multiple places or feeling like you can never find XYZ information when you need it, an organizing list may be the answer for you.

Organizing lists can take many shapes and forms, and they will vary in activity. Some organizing lists may take a “set it and forget it approach”, where you capture lots of information that you or someone else may need to access at some point in the future, but you won’t plan to access it regularly. While other organizing lists may be ones you reference every day, like a list of medications to take, or a list of items to remember before you leave for work.

Examples of organizing lists to try:

Listicles (List articles)

Pros / Cons list

Budget list

Outline list

Summary lists

Reading list

Wish list

Bucket list

Life Reference list

Birthday and celebration reference list

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

Planning Lists

Imagine you’re planning a surprise birthday party for your sister, mom, or significant other. You have lots to do, and you have a mental list of everything that needs to get done between now and then. You ask some of your friends and family to chip in and everyone has a job they’re responsible for. You’re a bit frantic, but everything is coming together and your sister/mom/partner is none the wiser. The party day comes and you’ve spent all day on last minute preparations getting the food ready, putting up last minute decorations, and running to the store five times for things you forgot to pick up. Everyone arrives and the night goes off without a hitch, but it isn’t until your mom/sister/partner calls you late into the evening that you realize no one was responsible for getting them to the party! They don’t arrive until most of the guests have gone home and they missed most of their own party.

This approach can be chaotic, and can often lead to things falling through the cracks and a lot of extra stress. Instead you could have used a planning list to map out everything that needed to be done, when it needed to be done by, who was going to do it, and any relevant information about it. You could also keep track of what had been done and what hadn’t, so you always have an idea of what’s still left to do and you can easily recall who said they were getting the cake and who’s putting up decorations so you can check in if needed. And if additional needs arise, you can easily capture and keep them organized with everything else. This allows you to have peace of mind on what needs to be done and the plan for it, so you can enjoy the planning process and have fun at the party- you can bake the cake, and eat it too! That is the practical power of planning lists.

A planning list is a list of action items to be done and the tracking of when they’re completed. The purpose of a planning list is to plan and organize items that need to be actioned or completed toward a specific end. Planning lists can be used for one-off projects such as surprise birthday planning, or they can span multiple areas such as a house renovation or a new product launch.

Examples of planning lists to try:

Goals list

Grocery list

To-do list

Project plan

Packing list

Create your lists

Now that you understand the basics of each type of list, try creating one of each type and implementing it within your life. We’ll share more examples and tips on how to power up your lists in other articles, and comment here if there is another type of list you want us to explore.