This was the title of my autobiographical piece for this
month’s local radio programme and I include parts of it here. I was under the impression that everyone made
lists, perhaps not as ardently as I do, but lists nevertheless. How else can you remember everything you need
to do?
Lists have and will
play a significant role in my life. As a
child of the 50s, education required learning by rote. This included preparing for the 11+ exam
using a text book called “First Aid in English”. This book contained lists of, amongst other
things, similes, antonyms, synonyms and group terms for animate and inanimate
nouns such as a bench of bishops and a clutch of eggs. Quizzing each other from this book was
considered fun in our household before we got a television!
Lists continued to be
a factor in my life in the form of to do lists, shopping lists and packing
lists; packing lists for weekends, main holidays, UK or abroad. At work or at home, my day begins with a list
whether mental or written. Some of you
will be thinking I suffer from OCD, others may think I am super efficient, when
in fact I am neither. I seem to live in
organised chaos and items on the daily to do list such as wash the kitchen
floor and tidy out the porch are frequently carried forward several times. Listless I truly believe my life would be
reduced to total chaos.
I have recently found
an exciting new app for my laptop and phone which allows you to, quote, bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. I still prefer a pen and paper which gives me
a feeling of security plus the satisfaction of ticking off the completed items
on the list.
The
media are increasingly using the technique of the listicle aimed at an audience
that they believe can’t manage to concentrate on much of anything. The listicle is an amalgamation of a list and
an article so, for example, a heading, such as “5 must-haves for the
fashionable woman this Spring” would
be followed by five bullet points, each of which would be fleshed out with
further explanation and detail.
How much do lists play in your life?
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