Lists! Lists! Lists!

Confessions of a prolific list maker

Are you a compulsive list maker like me? Do you find that you're never happier than when jotting items down in an orderly manner on a piece of paper, or into your favourite tech application? If so, welcome to my lens on lists - you are sure to find it very comfortable here!

This lens focuses on lists and listmaking in all it's forms - from the simple shopping list quickly jotted on a random scrap of paper right through to a detailed and structured goals list. There's sure to be something here to pique your interest.

Shopping Lists

The humble shopping list is possibly the most common kind of list you come across in everyday life. It's much easier to remember that you need to grab milk AND bread from the shops when you have them noted down on a scrap of paper.

While you can purchase specially printed and often decorated notepads for jotting down your shopping list, it's common to record your essential items on any old piece of paper that's handy at the time.

For a fascinating look at what other people put on their shopping lists take a look at The Grocery List Collection at grocerylists.org - it boasts the world's biggest collection of found grocery lists.

Shopping Lists to Print

Kidspot Shopping List: A great proforma shopping list to print that contains just about everything you could ever need to buy. This links directly to the PDF file.
Better Homes & Gardens Menu Planner Shopping List: A nice simple printable menu planner shopping list from the Better Homes & Gardens team. This links directly to the PDF file.
The Ultimatest Grocery List: Apparently the best pre-formatted grocery list ever made. You can download it in either A4 or Letter PDF format from this link.

List Making Books on Amazon

A selection of books related to list making in some way.

The Listmaker

by: Robin Klein

Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2008)

The Bucket List: Things to Do Before I Kick It

by: Justin Zackham

Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2008)

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

by: David Allen

Amazon Price: $9.43 (as of 12/02/2008)

To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us

by: Sasha Cagen

Amazon Price: $11.68 (as of 12/02/2008)

To-Do List

Amazon Price: $11.66 (as of 12/02/2008)

Recommendation Lists on Amazon

A selection of books containing lists of recommendations, whether it be for books to read, movies to see or travel destinations to visit.

1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List

Web-based List Making Tools

43 Things: The 43 Things website allows the user to build a list of 43 goals or things they would like to achieve. Other users can be encouraged with the use of a "cheers" scheme and users can group together to provide support to each other while working towards a goal.
Listography: An absolutely awesome site that allows you to create lists for just about anything you can think of. The lists can be formatted with different coloured backgrounds and appear laid out on a single page. Public and private list options are also available. Free to use, just create an account and start making lists.
Remember The Milk: My favourite web-based To Do list site. Remember The Milk allows the user to create lists of To Do items and assign priorities, due dates and tags. It's simple to use, quick to load and, the most useful feature for me, can be viewed on your mobile phone's web browser.
Scrybe: Still in beta testing, this web-based organiser application totally rocks and is fast overtaking Remember The Milk in my useful web tools list. While the to do list management functions are fairly simple and relegated to one small corner of the main calendar screen the application by far makes up for this by allowing some truly awesome printing options. Your To Do list and calendar can be printed in three different formats, two of them booklet formats much like PocketMod. Love this feature! Web-based is very cool, particularly with the option to share with others, but nothing beats a neatly printed go-anywhere paperbased list in your pocket :)