I love lists

Not kidding.  Always have. Always will.  A partner at my firm noted recently that he makes lists whenever he wants to avoid doing what is on the lists.  A very astute observation - often true in my case (unless the list involves some sort of shopping, cooking, exploring or web-surfing).  I was inspired as I looked at another book that caught my eye as I was buying my 5 year journal: 



THEN, I decided to see if I could capture the idea of this journal by purchasing my own journal - probably a fab Moleskine notebook - and coming up with my own list topics.  So I did a search and came across a unique concept: Make a list of 100.  


The idea found here is that to address any problem, you write the question/problem at the top of a sheet of paper and you  list 100 answers to the question/ways to address it/answer it, etc.  If you're lazy like I am when it comes to linking to other sites from blogs, here is the gist of the post: 


The ground rules are: 

1. Do it at one sitting

This is the one crucial element for the technique to work. If you end up doing your hundred entries, though over many sessions, you’ll defeat the point of the technique. Before starting your list, make yourself comfortable and try to block all potential interruptions.

2. Eliminate distractions

Just like most brainstorming techniques, you should strive to eliminate all activities unrelated to idea generation during the brainstorming session. Just focus on getting the ideas out of your head as quickly as possible following these rules:

• Don’t judge or evaluate ideas; you’ll review them later.
• Don’t write complete words or sentences if that slows you down.
• Don’t stop to wonder how far in the list you are; number the lines from 1 to 100 in advance or use numbered lists if you’re using a word processor.
• Don’t worry too much about repeating entries; duplicates can shed light on your patterns of thought.

As a list maker, I love this idea.  However, it does seem daunting.  When I have more time and am not totally exhausted, I may try this for a future blog post.  However, I'm going to have to come up with a really good question.  I guess the perfect question will be not yes/no (obviously) and will likely be so open-ended that the possibilities are endless - well, at least so numerous as to yield 100 different responses.  Now, to find a problem worth solving . . . 


Possible contenders: 

• How do I use a very expensive legal education to my benefit when I am eventually tired of being a lawyer? 
• How can I cook dinner (healthily) every night for a year without eating the same thing twice? (that's a trick question - my husband cooks dinner) 
• How can I find a new way to profit off of this generation's obsession with finding something on the internet and then attempting to duplicate it.  See Pinterest, Etsy, Apartment Therapy, etc. 
• What book topics will put me at the top of the NYT Bestseller List? 

Wow, I'm better at coming up with questions to answer than I thought.  Maybe I can come up with 100 questions to answer.  I am much better at asking questions than coming up with answers.  

This list thing really does work!!