List making and doodles

List writing can be a fantastic way to quickly get thoughts on paper and can comprise of anything which will help you to get those swirling thoughts out of your head and organised on to paper.
It might be a list of plants for a new border in the garden.
A shopping list – especially good if you have tendency to be drawn in to special offers, which might look appealing at the time but in hind sight did you really need 17 rolls of silver foil, especially as you didn’t even need one roll?
A List of Baby names or of people to call to start the process of moving house.

Richard Branson is a great believer in writing lists and has a top 10 tips for making lists Two of these tips are –
1/ Find a method that works for you. Doodles, bullet-points, and charts what suits you best?
2/ Keep it small, with manageable tasks to complete every day.
Not everyone will have neat columns of words which make their list – doodling can be beneficial too and can help to get thoughts and ideas moving around in your mind, at least that’s what I tell myself as my mind starts to wander and the pen takes on a life of its own and glides round the page or piece of paper usually leaving a trail of little curly s’s or arrows!
Being able to tick off completed tasks from a list is very satisfying and there are health benefits associated to making a list.
Reduce Anxiety
Boost Your Brain Power
Improve Focus
Increase Self Esteem
Organise Your Thoughts

Psychology Today has an article which includes 6 benefits of list making and also states that not only can writing be important but if you are using a computer or device to make your list the type of font, colours and layouts can be just as important. If you are a gadget person and paper and pen are not for you then I have found a review of the top apps for list making. I haven’t tried any of these myself as I am a pen and paper type but I am interested in hearing from anyone using an app like this, if it does help on a daily basis to organise thoughts and actions.
Now, trying to be objective when looking at this subject, it is only right that I point out what I think might be downsides too. I suppose that once you start to make lists and find that you are clearing your head it could become quite addictive to the point of being obsessive and then overwhelming, especially if you are not able to tick off completed tasks.
On the whole though it seems that list making can be a beneficial daily exercise for mind and sanity!