My sisters and I were talking today about making lists. One sister keeps the list in her head, another has a listmaking app, but I mostly make lists on paper. I keep a list paper pad on the file cabinet next to my studio table. Today’s lists included:
- class notes for my class at 1:00 pm
- packing list for my class at 6:00 pm
- thread colors for an order to make up class kits
- a quick glance and add on to my Gmail “Tasks” list
I thought you all might enjoy a peek at those lists you don’t see. Almost every time I teach a class, there’s a list kind of like this one. On Zoom, it sits on my laptop keyboard, just off camera. When I teach in person, it’s often up at my table and I use the back of it to write down things I need to remember when people ask me about them (like “bring materials fees bag next week”).
I have a degree in education so I spent many many classes in my college years writing lesson plans. I learned all the formats and styles and fads and mostly thought writing them out was a big waste of time. But this list is like my lesson plan. I write very little detail, but I give myself reminders so I don’t skip a step accidentally. Most of the projects I teach have a sequence of steps and if I miss one, I’ve learned the hard way it’s nearly impossible to talk people through how to go backwards a few steps and fix something. So I make sure I have all the steps written down so I can double check myself. I sometimes have times written by each step as well, so I can stay on schedule. (ie by the halfway point in class we need to be to this step.)
You’ll also see I make tiny simple diagrams. Sometimes for me a little picture of something is way more useful as a reminder than writing out all of the steps. For the project I’m teaching this afternoon, it’s really important to make sure you have two pieces facing the right direction or your snap won’t work. So I just drew what they need to look like as a reminder to talk about this.
Next, I made a packing list for my class this evening. I have only about an hour and a half between when one class gets done and I need to get in the car to go teach the other one, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget anything I need for tonight. I often use my class supplies, like scissors, for more than one class in a week, so I can’t just leave a bag packed up with everything I need. I made a handout for tonight’s class which I know is sitting on the printer in the other room so I need to not forget it. Out of sight, out of mind, right?? I also glanced at last week’s “lesson plan” list to see if I’d written anything down I needed to remember for this week (Materials fees!).
When I’m done with them, these paper lists all go into a stack and I use them as glue paper in the studio (the extra scrap you put underneath something you are glueing so you don’t get glue all over the cutting mat.)
The Gmail Tasks list I use for big picture projects that don’t have a specific timeline like “write a blog post”. I can check that one off today. I can add to that one from my phone so if I think of something when I am out and about it shows up there next to my email, which I know I will look at several times throughout the day.
How do you use lists? Are you a paper listmaker or a list maker app kind of person?
