I recently reconnected with my friend Kate from university. We’d met in Spanish class and saw each other every once in a while for a decade or so, but eventually lost touch after she moved to Vancouver and our lives took us in different directions.
Cut to: July 2023. Unbeknownst to me, Kate has been back in Montreal for a couple of decades. She spots me on social media and reaches out to see if I’d like to get together. Yes indeed!
We catch up one summer morning over coffee and pastries, and I realize pretty quickly that we’re still very much on the same wavelength.
And there’s something else.
When Kate pulls out a sheaf of papers from her bag to refer to something, I ask “What’s that?” – my eyes widening as I start to realize what I’m looking at. “Oh I make a lot of lists,” she says. And then I realize we have another thing in common that I hadn’t remembered – or maybe never knew.
Kate is a list-maker. An avid list-maker. Perhaps even more of an avid list-maker than me… definitely a more creative list-maker than me.
Kate’s lists are delightful to look at, full of hand-drawn checkboxes and circles to fill in when an item is started or completed. There are carefully handwritten notations of tasks and goals, formed by colourful pens and markers.
I stared in list-inspired awe. A few weeks later, I asked Kate if I could interview her about her lists for my blog. She was amused, but acquiesced.
Kate’s made lists since she was a kid, when she used to compile songs for basement playroom dance routines with her friend Rosie. Now a self-employed language and arts teacher, lists keep her from feeling overwhelmed, and help her stay motivated by having “pretty little boxes and circles to be ticked off when things are accomplished.” They help all the ideas that float around in her head become more concrete, and add motivation to keep going and complete projects.
She used to have huge, long lists that weren’t prioritized, but now she splits them up to make them more manageable. There are daily lists, monthly lists, and project lists. Her favourite lists relate to art-related and language-learning projects, because it “feels like one step closer to making them happen.” (Kate is a polyglot who’s studied a half-dozen languages, with aspirations to become competent in ten!)
Saturday is her day off from lists. A list sabbath, as it were.
One type of list that neither Kate nor I has made is a “bucket list,” and I revealed my revulsion for the phrase itself. (It really rubs me the wrong way – no offense to anyone with a bucket list!) She passed along another concept, a “reverse bucket list” – tracking things you’ve done so far, rather than things you want to do in your lifetime. This one appeals to me a bit more, though it still includes the words “bucket list,” so I’d probably coin a new term if I decide to put together one of my own.
After we met up to talk about lists, Kate emailed me with some further reflections:
“Lists are kind of like a diary. My current lists are mostly about work-related stuff but a year ago the lists would have reflected the fact that my sister and I were heavily involved in the care of two elderly people (long story): meetings with doctors and social workers, organizing caregivers, and visits to residences, etc. These were followed by more morbid lists of what to do after a death, funeral to-do lists, etc.
When I’m sick or have a migraine I often make micro-lists in my head, e.g., “I just have to do three things before I can curl up again: get up, pour myself a glass of water, answer an email.”
I also thought about list-making as a juicy distraction: like when you are trying to meditate or fall asleep.
Big thanks to Kate for sharing her passion for lists! I hope it inspires or fascinates you as much as it did me.
Kathryn Presner 