Make a list

A list is a basic building block of order. If you sort the list, then you’re creating lots of order, but first you need the humble unsorted list.

And even the unsorted list creates some order by itself. Before the list, you just have everything. But with the list, you have what is in the list, and what is not. Thus, you’ve imposed structure, meaning, order.

I find that when my mind is overwhelmed, writing a list of everything that’s bumping around in there is somewhat therapeutic. Often times the list is long, and full of things that I can’t really do anything about. But even a long list is finite, and seeing the finitude with your own eyes is good perspective.

Sometimes I’m tempted to try to wrangle the list. Sort by importance, or urgency. Filter out the stuff that isn’t actionable. Come up with solutions to problems.

But I don’t think that’s necessary or even a great use of time. The list is a dynamic changing thing, so it resists concretization. And a lot of the value is derived from just going through the reflection needed to make the list, so if you have to repeat that process tomorrow, you’ll get the value again.