3 Lessons We Can Learn From Lists

This season has been an homage to clickbait and lists. Nevertheless, some values come from using lists to communicate.  There are some critical concepts behind this approach to writing and even sharing ideas.  Therefore, it makes sense to offer an episode that looks at three things we can learn from lists and how to make them work for us.

A Simple Summary

One of the most significant values we derive from a list is the ability to grab a summary quickly.  Lists are made for scanning and speed reading.  Think about how often you read an article first by looking only at the section titles or list items.  That is just a smart way to scan for the key points of a piece when a list is available.  That allows us to consider the key take-aways from an article as one of the things we can learn from lists.

Communication Noise vs. Content

Learn Quickly

The above item leads to the logical step of being able to learn quickly.  A scan of a list can be orders of magnitude faster than reading through paragraphs of prose.  This concept holds true even in discussions.  The phrase "get to the point" could easily be translated into "tell me a list of what you want to communicate."  That can get simplified to a single item if we are really in a hurry.

Communicating Progress and Status – Consulting Tips

Well-Defined Limits

One of the most significant benefits of using a list to convey is that it provides us guide rails.  This concept should feel familiar as many writing classes in school start with an outline.  Even the most basic structure of a paragraph was almost a list.  I was taught that a "good" paragraph had a point, three supporting sentences, and a close.  That sounds a lot like a list to me with an intro and an end.  When you list out key points, then those provide you the focus for the entire article.  You can effectively build down out of each list item to a more fleshed out description of it.

Lists are attractive to us for many reasons.  Not all of them are nefarious in nature.  Do not worry about using lists to communicate to your audience; they happen to be a highly efficient method of doing so.

An Academic Article on Using an Outline