I am constantly surprised at the number of people that I talk to who don’t make lists. They’ll be talking to me about a project they’re in the middle of, or a project they wish they had time for, or the frustration they experience from not getting enough done.

I ask them about their list, how that’s working for them? More often than not (really!) I get a blank stare. “List?” they ask me, as though I had just switched from English to Klingon.

With the overabundance of books, websites, experts and programs that focus on productivity these days, you’d think everyone and his mother would have a list. Not so.

Making a list isn’t difficult, even if today’s experts have made it seem so. You don’t need a fancy organizer or any type of notebook. You don’t need the world’s most expensive pen; and you certainly don’t need expensive software.

Just grab some paper — the back of a napkin if you really have nothing else — and start: What’s the very next thing you need to accomplish to get closer to your goal? (You DO have a goal, yes? If not, take my FREE goal-setting email course, here.)

Now, thinking ahead, what would be the very next step? Write that down as number two.

Again, what’s after that? Number three.

Keep going, until you’ve reached the end of the project, or about number 8 or 9. Any list that’s longer than about 8 or 9 items and you’ll get overwhelmed.

Simple? Yes. Why don’t more people do it? Fear. Of failure. Of success. Of any number of things. Fear keeps us from accomplishing many, many things; that’s a subject for another post, though.