Listful Thinking

Hi. My name is Paula Rizzo, and I have glazomania. According to Dictionary.com, this condition is a passion for making lists. At Encyclo.co.uk, it is defined as “an unusual fascination with making lists.” Yep, I’m addicted to lists.

I’m definitely less stressed than the average person, and I have my lists to thank for that. Sure, there’s still anxiety about getting everything crossed off a list, but I have tools and tricks for that. As a deadline-driven, Emmy Award-winning television producer in New York City, I owe a lot of my success to my lists. I’ve used them to get more done at work, to plan a destination wedding, and to find an apartment—just to name a few.

✓ Things to do

✓ Places to go

✓ Story ideas

✓ Apps to try

✓ Restaurants I love

✓ Books to read

✓ Events to plan

The lists go on and on. I even make lists of things to say in awkward situations, when buying a bra, and to make people smile. I’ve found that being as prepared as I can for every situation in life makes it much easier to be efficient. I realize not everyone is as compulsive about list making or research as I am, but I think you could be. That’s why I wrote this book—to help you get your life back and not be overwhelmed.

I’ve always been afraid of change. When I was a kid, I hated getting a new teacher in grade school or moving to a new desk because I’d grown attached to what I knew. So when my husband, Jay, said he thought we should leave our home in Forest Hills in Queens and move to Manhattan, I did what I always do. I clammed up and rejected the idea. I thought, Why do we need a new apartment? This one is fine! Change is scary and unknown, and I have to work really hard at it.

Upper East Side, Midtown East, SoHo, Financial District, East Village, Gramercy—so many neighborhoods, and so little time. We checked every area we could find in Manhattan for a rental in our price range. But as soon as I got off the F train in Forest Hills and headed back to our apartment, I had already forgotten how many closets the apartment we looked at had, if it had an air conditioner, or what floor it was on! When you’re renting, sometimes the listings aren’t complete. They don’t have pictures, and there are rarely floor plans. Normally, I’m very good at paying attention and staying focused, but for some reason, this assignment completely overwhelmed me. I was shocked, until I realized why.

I wasn’t tackling this in a way that I knew from experience would work perfectly for me—with a list! After several disappointing and frustrating trips, I decided to make a checklist, just as I do at work. As a television and web producer in the Big Apple, I produce health segments in the studio and also in the field. That means I come up with story ideas, conduct interviews, book guests, prep anchors, time out segments, and much more. I realized that if I just applied some of the tools and techniques that have helped me to be successful at work, I would have no problem finding the perfect place.

When I produce segments, I use lists, checklists, and rundowns to keep myself better organized. So I made a checklist of all the things I needed to pay attention to when I was looking at an apartment: address, floor, view, hardwood floors or carpeting, number of closets, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, dishwasher, laundry, doorman, etc. This checklist became our rundown every time we stepped foot into an open house. Jay and I would refer to it as we walked through a space and ask questions accordingly. It allowed us to focus on exactly what we needed to pay attention to so that we could walk out with all the information we could possibly need to make a clear decision.

Much like my shoot sheet at work, this roadmap helped me to pay attention and know exactly what I would come out with. If I’m going out on a field shoot to get elements for a video package, I always bring a list of all the questions I need to ask and the shots I need to get.

The day before a shoot, I sit at my desk and run through the entire interview in my head. I visualize exactly how it should go. For example, I’ll interview the doctor first, then get exam video of the patient and doctor, and then interview the patient. I think about the purpose of the story and then write a list of all the questions to ask the doctor and the patient. This helps me make sure I don’t leave anything out.

No matter how many shoots I’ve been on, I always do this extra prep work beforehand. Anything can happen, and distractions can be costly. In TV the last thing you want to do is return to the station without a critical shot. Sure, editors can work wonders, but without a shot of the doctor performing an important part of a procedure, your piece is dead.

Sometimes when I’m on a shoot, things don’t go exactly as planned: a doctor has to step out during our interview to see a patient, or an emergency pops up. But with my checklist, I know exactly where we left off and what else needs to get done before I leave.

With my apartment checklists, I would go home and spread them all out in front of us so that Jay and I could compare listings. This helped us find a fabulous apartment in the East Village, where we loved living for four years.

About a month after we moved, a friend started looking for an apartment. She told me how disorganized and overwhelmed she felt with her search and asked me for “that list you used.” So I gave her my apartment-search checklist, and off she went. It helped her find the perfect apartment too. A real estate agent saw the checklist and asked her for a copy. He thought it was a great idea and wanted to share it with his clients so that they could stay focused and ask the right questions. My friend came back to me and said, “I think you’re on to something with your lists.”

In April 2011, I started ListProducer.com. It’s a productivity site where I share my lists and other efficiency techniques, as well as ideas I’ve curated from experts in various areas. Listful thinking, as I call it, can be applied to anything in life and almost all situations. My intention with the site is to help people become more efficient, productive, and less stressed in all that they do.

✓ Make you more productive and efficient both at work and at home

✓ Give you new strategies, and fix bad list-making habits

✓ Free up more time to do the things you really want to do

✓ Guide you to outsource aspects of your life so that you don’t have to do everything all the time

✓ Introduce you to apps, services, and websites that can help you stay organized

✓ Help you give better gifts, throw better parties, and be more engaged because you’ll have the time

✓ Be less stressed

This is a big one. Get ready to breathe a big sigh of relief. But first, you have a list-making assignment: make a list of the three things you hope to get out of this book. Your intention can be anything I just listed or something else, like “be more organized.” It’s up to you. I’ll be guiding you from chapter to chapter to reach your goals list by list.

I hope this book will help you spring into action and get more done. But I realize that sometimes it’s tough to get motivated, so I’m going to give you a helping hand. I’ve designed a toolkit to evaluate where you could use more lists and how they can serve you best. There will be some goodies there to keep you focused and help you reach your goals. Download it all for free at ListProducer.com/ListfulThinkingGuide.