The Lazy Genius Podcast - #173 - What Is Your List-Making Personality?

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

Lists are a big part of our lives, especially in these uncertain times, but I think we sometimes think there’s only one way to make them. That’s not true! So today we’re going to talk about list-making personalities and how we can support what matters in our lives even more with how we approach our lists. Stuff Mentioned There’s still time to join us for Book Club! Grab your guide and tune in on Thursday nights here. Some helpful list-adjacent LG content: How to Bullet Journal, The Lazy Genius Guide to Planners, and The Lazy Genius Chooses a Planner Download a transcript of this episode This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon presents Laura versus Fruitflies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen, these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. Hi everyone. You're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I am here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 173. What is your list making personality? Lists are a big part of our lives, especially in these uncertain times. But I think that we sometimes think there's only one way to make them and that's just not true.

So today we're going to talk about listmaking personalities and how we can support what matters in our lives even more with how we approach our lists. Before we get into that, I wanted to remind you that we are just starting week two of the lazy genius way book club. It's only a three week book club. It's very short, but it's not too late to join. All details are at the lazy genius collective.com slash book club, but here is the just. I want you to to gather up a couple of your friends, whether it's in person, you know, in ways that feel comfortable to you or virtually, obviously with people anywhere, and help each other lazy genius your lives using the 13 principles from the lazy genius way. Last Thursday, we had our first live video chat with everyone that's involved in the book club and it was so much fun. We also have a book club guide

with questions and reflections that you can use personally or your group can walk through together. It's a really low stakes, low commitment. It's a short window of time. But it's also really powerful reading this book with other people and lazy geniusing your problems together. So even though we're starting week two, it's not too late to join. Just go to the lazy genius collective.com slash book club where you can get the guide, watch last week's video, and you can find the link to join this week's video live. Everything is free. Our big book club, our big book club chats, that is a twister, we did not know existed. They're the next two Thursdays. So September 3rd and September 10th, all at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. And I hope you can join. We'd love to have you. Okay. So let's talk about

your list making personality. Usually when we think about making lists, we think about the particulars, the paper, the app, the way we cross stuff off. We start with like the nuts and bolts. When we do it, what we, you know, all that. We start with how we make. We make. make our lists. But even for something as basic as making a list, we need to still start with why, with what matters. I think there are three main types of thinkers when it comes to making lists and naming what type of list maker you are can help you name what matters about the actual, like, process of making a list, and then your lists can serve you even better. Okay, so those three types of list makers are trackers, unloaders, and developers. Okay, so first are the trackers.

These are people who make a list to keep track of stuff. You don't want to forget anything. You like to see your progress. Not only do you keep track of things using a list, you keep track of the list itself. The thought of making a list and then not ever looking at it again, it like does not make any sense to trackers. Trackers are also the people, who write something down even after they already did it just so they can cross it off. The second kind of list maker is the unloader. If you're an unloader, you make a list when your brain is too full and you just need to get stuff out. There's no real rhyme or reason to the order of what you list out. And in some cases, you might not even really look at the list again.

The point is not to keep track of things. It's simply to unload them. or your brain will explode. Once you unload, you have a clearer head on what to do next. And the third kind is the developer. A developer makes a list to put things in order, to see what comes next in support of like a bigger project or vision. Developers like having a list to get stuff done like the trackers do, but developers only reference the list when the bigger needs a reminder. They can sort of like operate pretty well without the list in front of them. Okay. So if you're setting up like a visual comparison here, for trackers, a list is the road. Without it, they go nowhere. If you're a tracker, you really need your list or you feel like you're

going nowhere. For the unloaders, a list is like a rest stop. You're on the road and you're doing your thing, but sometimes you have to pull over and throw away all the trash in the car and stretch your legs and remember what's important again. And for developers, a list is like the travel itinerary. You know your next stop. You know the next big thing that's coming. But if you veer off the path a bit getting there, it's okay because you feel confident in where you're heading next. The process matters just as much as the destination, if not more. Okay, so here's the thing about these three listmaking personalities. You can tap into any of the three. at any time. I think we all use listmaking in these three ways to some extent. So these are not like

exclusive personalities. But I think there's a lot of power in naming like, oh wait, that's me. That's how I use a list, right? Because if you're an unloader, but you try and force yourself to be a tracker, lists are not going to serve you. So choose the one personality that makes the most sense that feels like your usual way of approaching lists. Or if there's another name for how you see lists, name it yourself, right? It doesn't have to be one of these three. The name isn't the rule. It's a tool to help you understand why you make lists in the first place.

So knowing that, knowing why you make lists, you can have a better idea on when you make your lists, how you make your lists, who's involved in your lists, and all the other things that usually go first. By starting with why you make lists and giving yourself permission to make your list for that reason, even when it's not someone else's reason, your list making will enhance your life rather than just be another thing to do. Now, I want to go through each listmaking personality and talk about a few components that can kind of help you lean into your list making tendencies and make it work for you. And then we'll end with a couple of like listmaking principles that work for every personality. Okay, first the trackers. Trackers need

ongoing lists and a regular rhythm of adding to the list. I think a lot of trackers really love the bullet journal method. Trackers love planners. Trackers love list pads that already have structure built in. Trackers like a good system. And the best way to maintain that system is to leave your list in a visible place. Make it obvious. If you're a tracker and you write down all your tasks and to-dos and even like ideas and stuff you don't want to forget, if you write that down and then put it away, you put the list away, you're going to lose your mind. Because in some ways, you just put your mind away. So leave your list out. Keep it visible and close by. That does not make you obsessive. It's actually helpful in keeping you from becoming a business.

obsessive because you can see clearly what matters and where you're going next. I also think a lot of trackers are analog people. And if that's the case, I want you to think about this. If your list impacts someone else, if the tasks hold an expectation of another person and you are an analog list person, your family member may never know about that task or that expectation because you keep an analog list. It's harder to sync those up. So if you are an analog person, please be aware of the rest of your people. Have regular conversations about what you're putting on your list that impact others so that those things happen if they need to happen, but they happen within the support system that the other person uses too, not just yours.

That is why my husband, Kaiz, we talk most nights about the next day, or at the very least we talk on Sunday night about the coming week. I have a lot written down. And while he, he does have access to my Google calendar and he can see what's coming up. He doesn't see what's in between those events, right? He might see that like an article is due, but he doesn't see that the two days before I need to work uninterrupted to get it done. So remember to include your people in your lists, especially if they're part of them and you're a tracker, especially an analog tracker. And finally for the trackers, the system itself is not the good. goal. You do not need the perfect planner or the perfect method of making your list or the perfect

pen to write it down. You think that in order for the list to function at its best, that you need all those components to be perfect, but you do not. Remember that you're a tracker and that you need to keep a running list throughout the day so you don't spin out. Just keep it visible. It doesn't have to be color coded or anything that doesn't support the actual act of the tracking. That's the point here. That's the point here. There's nothing wrong with being a tracker. It is completely without morality. All three of these personalities are. Simply be a tracker without putting value on how you do it. Just do it. Start small. Movement one small step at a time is better than building a giant list making machine and then scrapping it after a week because it was too big. Bullet journals,

anyone, that's what they do. Unless you do it like I talked about it. Okay, so that's actually kind of like a, it's a niche example, but a very perfect example. In your bullet journal, if you create like a dozen signifiers to draw next to each item on your list to show what kind of, you know, item it is, but you get tired of drawing a light bulb next to every single idea that you write down. So you just stop writing down your ideas altogether and then you scrap the whole thing because nothing looks consistent. That is not letting your tracker self thrive. You have to start small. Just write it down and keep it in front of you. RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next. If you've got the drive, they'll help you find your

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If you're an unloader, don't feel pressure to keep a little. like a tracker does. You just need to trust that making your giant list when you feel a little crazy and then never really looking at it again is okay. That is very normal for so many people. Now, if you would like the tiniest bit of direction and how to maybe decide once, which is a lazy genius principle, how you can decide once when it comes to being an unloader, maybe you have like a cheap little notebook or a running Google Doc where you always put your unloadings. By how having the one place you always go, you're not like, you know, you're not looking for a piece of paper and then you can look back if you ever wanted to. You likely wouldn't look back to remember if you

did something, but instead you might look back to see patterns of what's filling your brain. And at what point is it time to unload? I think the first two or three things that you write down as an unloader are likely the last two or three things that went into your brain that made it bust. they're the things like on the soonest deadline or the things that you feel like you need to do but you keep putting off and then I think the items towards the middle and bottom of the list might be things that actually deeply matter but are getting pushed down in service to the urgent most recent things so there's a lot of power lying in that Google Doc or that little notebook where you always unload pay attention to where the items are on the list see if there are

similarities among those lists and just make your list when you need to. And lastly, developers. I think developers love like a good organized color-coded system. Developers really love technology because then you can shift items around in different categories to process different information. If you resonate with the developer list making energy apps like Trello, Evernote, Asana, Airtable, any kind of project managing software is probably a better avenue for you than just a plain notebook. The ideas are talking to each other, right? They inform each other. The tasks are connected in multiple ways. And in order to develop the best path to get where you're going, you need to understand and see those connections clearly. And it's just tough to do that with a pen and paper. It's not impossible, but it's tough.

So explore an app or software that can support how your brain naturally processes information. Add stuff to the list whenever it comes. Maybe you check in once a week to see how things are going. You can create like an easy rhythm for how often you engage in the list. Or you can simply look back at it when, you know, you've like arrived at the next destination on your itinerary and just see where you are and see what's coming next. again developers don't need the list like as their road like trackers do it's just nice knowing it's there it's waiting for you when you need it and it's able to be versatile and the ideas can connect to each other

organically especially with some sort of like creative smart technology so the point here is just to lean into what you are don't try and be another kind of list maker we all work differently and that's great so don't beat yourself up for being one way, don't try to idolize another way, just embrace who you already are and how you already work and think and simply support that by making lists in a way that makes the most sense for you. Now to wrap up, here are a couple of list making principles that I think apply to everyone. First thing, start with a verb. When you're writing down stuff, even if you're on unloader, try and begin each item with a verb. attach an action to it. That action gives you more momentum into the actual doing, but I think sometimes

if I can't name the action or if I feel overwhelmed by the action, it's a filter into seeing if something matters or not. For example, something that used to float around my subconscious list world was baby books. I would just write down baby book. But do what with a baby book? Like make one, organize one, finish one. And it was always make one, which is why I never did it. That verb is really overwhelming for a really big project, right? And it wasn't important enough for me to see it through. But if it is important enough, but the word make is too overwhelming, start with a different smaller verb. Like choose 20 photos for a baby book.

Plan a Saturday to work on the baby book. By starting each list item with a verb, you give yourself a filter for what actually matters and can naturally break things into smaller steps, which is a very lazy genius thing to do. Okay, so the second principle, first one is to start with the verb. Second principle is to name the most important thing on your list.

If you are a tracker, what one thing can you do that would make the other things like feel fine if they don't get done? If you're an unloader, what is getting crowded out by other non-important things that you want to bring to the front of your brain, to the front of the list? If you're a developer, what idea or task seems to connect to lots of other ideas and tasks? Name what's most important on list. And the third and final principle, a list will never save you. It can be a great tool, especially if you know your listmaking personality. But even with the best tools and perspective for you, a list still isn't your savior. If you go into list making with the purpose of saving your life, of feeling completely in control of whatever else, you're going to be disappointed. Of course it can

help. Of course it is a great tool, but it's not the only thing. So let it be part of your life. Not the only thing in your life. People over lists. Presence over lists. Perspective over lists. And those are true, no matter your list making personality. Okay, that's it for today. We just did an episode on making lists. That was really fun. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, you. You can join our book club late, if you like. We still have two weeks left. And obviously, the book will exist like kind of forever. So I hope that you read it. I hope that you love it. If you have read, if you have read it and you share it with your people, the book club could be a really

great way to kind of have some structure to talk about it and apply some of these principles to your life with the help of people who know you well. All the info is in the show notes of this episode. Or you can go to the lazy juniors collective.com slash book club. All right. That is it until next time. Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life?

It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not.

available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to becoming you wherever you get your podcasts.