Lists are highly cool.
There is something thrilling about lists.
You feel all rad, and organised and diligent when you write them.
They help narrow your thoughts.
Scratching down notes like a mad scientist is enlivening.
A list’s endless scope, coupled with the power of their limits, makes us more creative.
It’s like we’re taming nature — harnessing the chaos of the Universe — with only a pencil and paper.
And yet we don’t use them enough.
I say this because I don’t.
I found myself short on ideas and creative energy recently.
So I asked, what is it that has repeatedly made me more creative?
Lists.
Brainstorming.
Forcing myself to come up with as many ideas as possible.
Just the thought of list-writing for the sheer fun of it gives me tingles.
If you have read this far, it likely has the same effect on you too.
Lists are not only reserved for your to-dos and your next listicle blog post.
They have other, compelling, and practical uses.
Lists make you more intelligent.
When you use lists to come up with ideas, you are engaging in actual, in the moment, idea-peeling.
That first idea you had? Looks nice. But it looks even cooler, and possibly weirder when you strip away that first layer.