Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive, Successful and Less Stressed

I settled on the name Listful for a project I’m working on and came across this book when I was doing research. I thought I’d buy it because (1) it has the same word in the title and (2) maybe I could learn something useful from it. I did not learn useful information from it.This book reads like a Vanessa Bauer doing impression of a rich lady on SNL. The information presented in this book is a summary of existing resources at best, hand-wavy at average, and terrible advice at worst (for example, suggesting passwords through Asana...don’t do that).I think the part that pissed me off the most was the part about outsourcing — she mentions how outsourcing helped someone save half a million dollars, which... I don’t even have half a million dollars to save, Paula. And then she has the audacity to suggests getting an intern because “interns are usually free labor”.

I found this book to be quite useless. The author natters on about how great it is to make lists and gives dozens of examples of things she makes lists of such as grocery lists (duh), gift lists, packing lists, etc. She also makes lists things seem quite silly such as things to say to a celebrity - should you ever run across one who actually wanted to be chatted up by a stranger, or a list of things to say to make people smile. If I spent all the time she does making lists I'd never have the time to actually accomplish anything.Much of the book has nothing to do with lists and is a re-hashing of organizing tips and tricks that anyone interested in time management had already heard a hundred times. The main message seemed to be, "if you have something you need to remember to do, write it down." I think I could figure that one or for myself.It also seems to me that the author misses the boat on the most effective use of lists which is a standing checklist for anything you have to do more than once. While she alludes to it and has a couple of samples, most of her examples are of one time lists. I also thought it curious that the author's most comprehensive checklist for a repeatable activity was for a destination wedding. Just how many times would one have to plan a destination wedding for themselves?Bottom line is that I found this book to be like so many of the "blog-to-book-deal" genre; light on substance, obnoxiously chatty in style, and completely lacking in originality.

I had recently bought this eBook and put it in my Kindle library to collect a bit of digital dust until I could pull it up and read it. I was feeling depressed, disorganized, mentally fuzzy, tired and unsure of what I should be doing when I thought to myself, "what one book could I read that could pull me out of this funk." This one came to mind and I read it in one day while at work (I got a lot of downtime). Right from the start my mind started feeling awake, positive, organized, clear and motivated and believe it or not, I could even see more clearer.. really. This was just what I needed to kick-start me into high gear and start making lists. The first list I made is a list of the lists I need to make. Paula did a wonderful job of organizing the information and getting right to the point..not much fluff here. She gives a lot of great resources too that will save you time and probably money as well since time is money and you could spend hours trying to find all the suggested apps she lists in this book. I rarely give 5 star reviews and I don't know this author from anywhere so this review is pure, grateful expression. If you need to get organized..get this eBook and DON'T waste any time allowing it to gather digital dust on your Amazon cloud. READ IT ASAP!

I was very excited to read this book. I've been a list maker most of my life and I thought this book would help me get better at List making. It did help confirm that I'm am creating good lists and I have a good system already. But there were a couple sections in the book related to areas that I wanted to improve on but the author only hinted at them and didn't expand on at all. So I was disappointed in that regard. It's a good starting book for someone interested in upping their list making game. But some key ideas lacked expansion.

While we have so many systems, apps, books, etc., to help us organize our lives and our stuff, coming back to the concept of a simple list system is brilliant, and this book reminded me of same. No learning curve required!

This book provides a quick but detailed view into the day to day life of a master organizer. I found a dozen new ideas and “reframed” some of my own methods.

A quick read with lots of good tips for organizing and simplifying life by using lists. I took quite a few ideas away from this book, and I look forward to implementing them!

LOVED THIS BOOK! Paula Rizzo has written a helpful, user-friendly guide for how to intelligently use lists to increase productivity and reduce stress. I liked a lot of great morsels in here. My personal favorite: Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo and also a list-maker) hates to get to the end of her lists. Need a productivity boost? Put this book at the top of your list!

It’s pretty much a book suggesting what lists to write.Nothing really revolutionary, a reasonable read.

Dear Paula,I thank you for writing a great productive book in this world of multi tasking.Soon after listening your interview from the podcast with Farnoosh on SO MONEY. I instantly ordered your book from Amazon.in.Although it took more than 3 weeks to deliver, it was worth waiting. Slowly, I have started inculcating the daily ritual of writing and striking off from my to-do list. Hope everybody would benefit in reading and implementating for the rest of their life.My Wishful Thinking is happening due to my Listful Thinking.Best regards,Vijay

I have always made and used lists for years and thought that I wouldn't be able to learn too much else on the topic. But in this case, Julie Morgenstern has brought simple list making to new heights by also introducing much of all the web has to offer concerning making and using lists to advantage.

Excellent read!

Unfortunetely the book did not give me the insights I hoped for. 'Just a list of lists' was not what I looked for.