Is Everything We Consume Online Just One Big List?

A few weeks ago, I caught an interview with Ali Abdaal, who’s become one of my go-to thinkers when I find myself in the maze of productivity culture. In his conversation with Colin and Samir, he shared an idea about the simple power of list-making when faced with a mountain of tasks. It got me thinking – despite the sea of list-based content out there, from Buzzfeed to bestsellers like James Clear’s "Atomic Habits," there's something universally compelling about a well-crafted list.

I have a confession: I’m a list lover, but it’s complicated.

There’s an elegance to slicing through the daily jumble of tasks and thoughts with a good list. In meetings, I’m not trying to catch every word, but the greatest hits in snappy bullet points. When brainstorming for a project, I rely on lists to map out the terrain. Even life’s dilemmas often find themselves dissected into a tidy ledger of pros and cons on the nearest scrap of paper.

The crux of it is, lists do more than just tidy up thoughts; they lighten our mental load. Ever left a meeting with your head spinning like you’ve been handed an atlas when you just needed a street map? That's when a well-organized list can step in to calm the chaos, making the insurmountable suddenly totally achievable.

There's a neat trick to lists that I can’t overlook – they make the enormous feel manageable. In this age where every second counts, a list is a lifeline thrown across the choppy waters of information overload. It’s no surprise that one of the most watched videos online is a straightforward tutorial, which, at its heart, is a list set in motion. You could argue a vlog is essentially a list too, a curated catalog of daily misadventures. The more you start to observe, the more you realize that lists are embedded in the fabric of our day-to-day lives.

It was the process of making vlogs that lodged this idea in my mind. I’ve been watching a lot of Ali Abdaal, because he runs a course I’ve been taking called the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, and in it, he distills things he’s learned over six years of publishing videos to YouTube, and gaining several million followers along the way. I don’t know that Ali would necessarily say he started out intending to become a visual storyteller, but over the years, his channel – where he talks about productivity tips, books, and more – has become just that. Not just one person talking to a camera all the time, but animated examples, interviews with experts and thought-leaders, confessions from his actual experience both as a medical student turned doctor, then doctor turned full-time content creator. It’s a new way of storytelling and it starts with lists.

Lists are practical. They offer a blueprint, a clear-cut strategy to delegate and tackle tasks, ensuring no one's left to wander aimlessly in the project wilderness. They can be the collective sigh of relief for a team, turning 'What now?' into 'What’s next?' and in doing so, help share the burden of progress.

But, of course, it's not all smooth sailing. Every tool has its flaws, and lists are no exception. Who hasn’t left a meeting feeling like they’re gearing up for an epic quest rather than tackling next quarter's marketing strategy? The theatrics of 'battle prep' don't quite translate when you're just trying to sort through emails.

Even productivity experts are torn. Best-selling author and Computer Science Professor Cal Newport has said to-do lists are dangerous and has talked at length about what to do about to-do list fatigue, and if you should ditch your to-do list for a slow productivity mindset; The Organized Mind author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitan argues to-do lists have calming powers; author and productivity consultant David Allen created Getting Things Done (GTD), a task management system which essentially helps you prioritize your tasks in a list-adjacent way. Even productivity expert Laura Vanderkam has discussed the pros and cons.

As list lovers, we have to recognize there's a pitfall in the simplicity of lists. In the quest to streamline, we can strip away the rich layers of complexity that give big ideas their true color and personality. If we’re all aboard the innovation train, can we honestly compare the research and nuances of a new challenge with a straightforward list without losing something vital in the translation?

And let’s talk about the trap of the list itself – the illusion that if we can just get these things down in a neat, numbered order, the doing will take care of itself. If you haven’t yet experienced the joy of the scene from He’s Just Not That Into You wherein Alex (Justin Long) explains to Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) how most of us are the rule, not the exception - you’re missing one of life’s great lessons. It’s a fascinating, if brief, conversation that boils down to the fact that you can do all the right things and still not end up with what you want or expect. Good intentions, sure, but the follow-through? Not so much.

Creating lists also brings us face to face with the Zeigarnik Effect – that nagging sense of unfinished business that clings to us, reminding us that the act of listing is far from the act of completing.

Ultimately, the art of list-making is about finding the balance that works for you. It’s about harnessing the clarity and direction that a good list can provide, without being shackled by it. It's a tool, not a tyrant.

So yes, I'm an advocate for the humble list – but with a dash of realism. Lists are a bit like scaffolding; they help us build and reach new heights, but we shouldn't mistake them for the building itself.

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