Today’s pro-tip is in the category of “so obvious it is both easily forgotten and psychologically hard to follow through on.” And that is: make lists.
The heart of being professional is two words: be organized. And the heart of being organized is just making and maintaining lists. It’s a tautological syllogism, almost.
In fact, if there is any doubt that this isn’t as self-evident as 1=1, then just think about any productivity software, system, or platform you can think of, technological or non-technical. Every single one has one feature in common: they’re souped-up versions of making lists. Asana and Trello, lists with ownership of each item and granular permissions and structure, and advanced functionality. Yup, that’s exactly what they are.
If lists are indeed the heart of organization and professionalism, why don’t more people make and maintain them? Indeed, we often mock people with too many lists, we’ve all known someone like that.
For a few reasons that are important to articulate.
One is that lists are so hard to keep up that it is a pattern we all have seen too many times, likely too many times within ourselves: to start a list and keep it updated for a whole 10 days. Then less frequently, less frequently, less frequently, until it is abandoned. Maintaining lists is technically trivial but, both emotionally and psychologically, surprisingly difficult to do.
I wish I had a “this is the secret way to motivate yourself to do it” tip but nope, the only way I know of is to internalize the truth that this is not just deeply important but at the heart of your career and your success. You won’t believe that by reading the writing on this page (err, screen for some?) but maybe you may have to learn it the hard way. Such is how the human soul works.
But here is a motivational secret, at least in my experience, organization is a much larger driver in client happiness and success than the quality of the work itself. Why? If you’re organized, at least the client has visibility in what’s happening and confidence it’s happening, and thus he knows he can go in and tweak the work itself to improve it over time. Compare to the opposite situation: if you’re awesome but all over the place, it’s hard for a client to see what’s happening.
Think of organization as a ritual, something that must be practiced over and over until it’s mastered. Approach it like going to the gym—wait, most people stop going to the gym after a few weeks or months of membership. This is for precisely these same psychological idiosyncrasies! So that’s not a good example. Approach it like any goal you’re serious about.
And there’s not much more to it than just making lists for everything—everything you can imagine—and then making sure they’re updated. I’ve even had, in various circumstances, to make “lists of lists.” Meta, but it’s useful.
And don’t even think about a tool (like Trello or Asana) to help you with the lists, nope. That’s the bonus to make it easier once you’ve already mastered the basics. You can read Shakespeare only once you’ve mastered reading the big-lettered versions of Dr. Seuss’s books. A clear way to fail is to jump into a tool without first internalizing the ritual.
There is another reason many tend to be hesitant about lists; you fear your list may suck. Maybe it’s not comprehensive enough? Maybe there are details you should include but you’ll miss? What if you’ve never seen a list on this sort of issue before so you don’t even know how to approach it?
To this, I’d make the same observation I’d give to anyone who is collecting data: some is better than none. Something is better than nothing. In all circumstances.
Look at it this way. Pretend you’re the client, the boss, or any decision-maker. You have to see what’s up so you can make a decision. Under which situation are you better able to make a better decision?
- You have some list, even if it’s mediocre and missing things and confusing.
- You have absolutely and utterly nothing to examine.
It shows you won’t avoid the hard or emotional issues, but you’ll confront them head-on
The first case wins, every time.
Finally, here’s a little trick I use to make sure I have the relevant lists and they are useful: I make a list and share them publicly. Thank you, Google Docs, particularly Google Spreadsheets. How did the world survive before you? Once you share a list publicly, it puts the pressure of the public performance on you, so you’re much more likely to follow through with it.
