The trustiness of a well-developed list is unparalleled in the department of information tracking. Just kidding, that’s way too serious for the article ahead. However, a good list goes a long way and I also thought it would be kind of funny to write a list on lists. So without further ado here are five reasons creating a list is the best way to keep your life straight even over this winter break.

Aesthetically pleasing.

This first point goes out to all those bad hand writers like myself. I personally use the iPhone’s reminders app but it might as well be called the list app. Anyway, with the app, you can jot down a short reminder that you can come back to later. For me, it is especially useful because I don’t have to decipher my own hand writing on the side of my oceanography note sheet that went and got dropped in a puddle.

Plain and simple.

In middle school I had a required planner and I guess it sort of worked even though I was pretty swamped with dates, homework, and personal affairs but when it came to high school and college I found that it just became too messy. The best part about my lists is that I can just glance at them and know what needs to be done rather than look way ahead. For instance I find it much easier to read “get skid marks out of underwear” than to look ahead to Friday and see that I have a date with my mom.

Can be done whenever.

As I mentioned before, I use the reminders app on my iPhone as a list app and that is pretty much all I use. This is especially helpful because, if you are anything like me, you probably aren’t that mentally awake until your trying to go to sleep. Unless I am directly confronted with a thing that needs to be added to my list I often just forget to do it. However, when it is about 12PM-1AM at night I suddenly remember that I have a final at 10:30 the next day. Thankfully my lists have saved numerous amounts of time because it’s right on my phone where I can reach from my bed and type it into my reminders app.

Prioritize.

I sort of mentioned it in the plain and simple point, but with the reminders app I can look at all things I need to do in one place. With that, I can easily identify that it’s Thursday night and that I have a date with my mom on Friday and still have not removed the skid marks in my underwear. With the list, I can easily prioritize what I need to do first and can actively check off, or rather, delete the reminder off my phone.

Motivation.

The last point I have speaks on my own sense of motivation. Tasks aren’t always fun but when I can see them being accomplished like “read history book” and being able to delete it off my app, it's a lot more motivating than to just start studying the mountain of work I have. Partly linked with this point is that I can look at my list and see that I need to read my history book and I can project maybe a 20 minutes to a full hour to it, depending on whether or not I am keeping up or catching up. Never the less it gives me the luxury of knowing what I have ahead of me so I can schedule my day.

In a perfect list-lived world I wouldn’t have to catch up on my readings, but things happen, and I don’t always do my work when I would like to. None the less, I think lists are the best form of tracking your work, and I would encourage you to do the same. If this doesn’t motivate you, I’m sure you’ll reconsider when your mom catches you with skid marks in your underwear.