Rendezvous with an old list

I have this habit of creating lists, list of goals, list of projects, list of improving skills, list of mistakes made previously, list of things to do, grocery list, list for parenting ideas, list of activities to do with J, list of things that J need to do in the evening everyday, lists of things I want to teach her, list of stories I want to discuss with her, list of authors I want to introduce to her, list of music to listen, list of plants to plant when I will have a dream herb garden, list of monthly expenses, list of ideas for frugal living, list of gifts I wish to buy for my family, list of gifts I want to buy for myself, wish list created in an online book store website about books I want to buy and eventually read, list the points for giving a power point presentation, list of website to browse, list of places to travel, list of house chores I need to finish urgently, list of digital photos I wish to print in hardcopies, list of accessories I would like to have with some of my dresses, list of new colour combinations for office ware, outline the points before writing an article or a book (only 2 theses so far), list of things I want to share with my sister, brother, and daughter as they reach different stages of their lives which I have already visited, list of commands for software use which reduces my dependency on mouse, list of movies to see, list of television series which I missed while being busy in different parts of life specially trying to finish my PhD and raising J both at a same time.

I make these lists in my mind, using my phone app, on random but  only on yellow post-it, on the back of an envelope, on the calendar, on my daily planner, on any piece of paper, printed on A4 size paper hanging on the sideboard of my bay, on the back of a letter pad, in J’s rough notebook, in my project book,  on the margins of a weekend news paper (other days I don’t get to read news paper in the morning), in my husbands phone (grocery list), on a book mark, using MS word in laptop, on the leftover portion of a journal article printout (specially I used to plan experiment while in research), using a power point (outline of a presentation).

Normally making a list is half of the work done for me, sometimes I make a list and then spend days weeks with very sorted and happy go lucky smile on my face. After making a list I am sometimes very keen on ticking them off, but sometimes eons of laziness prevent me to do anything about any or many points on the list. I ponder on the point for some hours to days and then that point might slip from my mind. Specially for things with no urgency like list of photos to be printed or so on. But the process of list making continues.

Then one day while teaching maths to J, while cleaning my hand bag, while turning pages in my daily planner, while cleaning the study-desk, while looking at the calendar, while playing with my phone apps, while searching for a word document in my laptop, while throwing some old envelopes, while collecting the bookmarks from old books I meet with an old list. It is almost like meeting an old friend, it is like going back in days and peeking at my brain in past, it is absolute thrill to read that old list again and finding how many points are ticked off  or for that matter not ticked from that old list. Also finding that the teaching names of primary and secondary colours to J was so high priority in my list few years ago and today I don't even notice when she talks about complex colours like beige, magenta or olive green!

Are you a list maker? How do you feel when you meet with an old list?