Phone numbers I always write down, as I can't remember them. Then the list gets too crowded and I worry about whether or not I'll be able to rewrite it in a better form.
I often write agendas, but a lot of the time I find myself not using them because I tend to get into problems trying to read them and check things off while I'm working. I use my shopping lists, though in the thick of shopping it's not always easy, especially when I find myself having to buy stuff in a different order to the list. Somehow the list never seems quite systematic and logical for me. Other times I'll struggle to limit the agenda to the basic things I need to write, and end up writing loads of detailed instructions that I probably don't need, so the whole thing gets very muddled and crowded. Somehow I can't easily find the boundaries between making the list complete and keeping it manageable. I can't predict in advance what I'll be able to remember without writing it down, and erring on the safe side just makes the thing so long that it becomes impossible to navigate through it.
At work my lists seem to go out of date before the ink is dry, as demands are added, removed, or modified. So I've developed a reluctance to write an agenda at all, and at one time I was trying to keep everything in my head. It was pretty effective in general, but I found it quite scary.....I'd suddenly think of an item that I'd been overlooking, and would wonder what might have happened if I hadn't remembered it in time - memory seems so irrational and unreliable. But it meant I could get on with the work instead of hanging about designing neat task lists, so in a way it was more efficient.
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now that I run my own business I can't afford to be wrong so it's all in Excel
I think I take that "can't afford to be wrong" into every walk of life. So if I go shopping, it's very hard for me to accept that it doesn't really matter if I don't get everything I'd planned to get. Perfectionism and black and white thinking, I guess. I can often break through it if I think carefully about a particular item and ask myself "what would happen if I didn't get this today?" but unless I really make the effort, then by default it's my sworn duty to complete the mission at all costs.