not afraid of paper no. 14: thirty-five silly little lists you can make right now

IT WAS GOOD FOR THE PLOT, soda rank, sacred spaces, and more

I have been making lists since I could write. Schedules, ideas, to-do, inventories, favorites, to-buy, times I [did whatever], concerts I’ve been to, you name it. Learned it from my mom, Queen of the Lists. Lists, whether numbered, bulleted, or checkmark-ready, are a helpful tool for creative journal heads. They often feel less intimidating than going Dear Diary mode & writing in complete, dramatic sentences, especially when you’re looking at a blank page on Lisa Simpson mode, like this:

mom, can you pick me up? I think I’m kinda afraid of paper

Lists are not just for ‘planners’ or masters of productivity — they can offer journaling enthusiasts and diarists…

• a quick exercise if short on time

• a placeholder to expand on ideas later if currently in a creative rut

• high-impact in a smaller space

• a practice in summarizing

Silly is subjective, little is debatable, but ‘silly little’ is right on the money and in a language most of you speak. They don’t have to be laugh-out-loud funny, or quirky for the sake of it. They don’t have to totally reinvent the wheel. They can just be lists. Some people thrive with having parameters and expectations in their journaling practice, and I respect that. AND YET,

One of the things I believe people are drawn to about my journaling style is that I have very few rules and am always switching things up. What you write about doesn’t always have to be prolific or productive¹. These are for fun, meant to be tweaked to your liking. We’re not afraid of paper over here.

I have twenty five years’ worth of lists under my belt. They are in journals I could flip through right now; some spreads are living forever on the ‘gram (or elsewhere online). Other lists simply live on in my memory. Here are a few I’ve gathered that I’d like to share today. This is the first installment of… probably quite a few. WHEN I SAY YEE, YOU SAY HAW. YEE-