Monday, September 03, 2007

Are we hardwired to list?

Sometimes I wonder whether it's a largely American (or American and European) phenomenon to live and die by a list. So I found it curious and fun to stumble upon this piece written by a Turkish woman in an English-language newspaper the Zaman struggling with being a lister in a non-listing culture, "Does Your To-Do List Get You Down?" She writes:
I think some cultures make more use of this method of organization than others. Part of this could be because certain nationalities are known for being more organized than others. It’s unfair to generalize because within any culture there people who are and those who aren’t. I bet if you ask people from any culture who are “go-getters” if they make a to-do list, they would say, “Definitely!" . . . I don’t think I have seen too many people buying a to-do list pad here in Turkey.

What do you think? Are to-do lists are an American (or Western) phenom, or are they global in reach?

16 comments:

Moataz said...

i'm from egypt and i want to say that it is an excellent way to organize our life daily .. and i hope that i can make it daily to can make a control on my life

thank you very much , and your project and your blog is very nice

with my best wishes,
moataz

Doreen said...

I've been a silent admirer of your blog for some time. But silent no more, I wrote a post about it on my blog, Key On Garden Door, an astrology blog, a piece about Saturn in Virgo. Congratulations on the upcoming book.

Unknown said...

hi moataz,

thanks for your comment! i find it fascinating to learn about how people of various cultures use (or don't use) to-do lists.

Unknown said...

hi doreen,

thanks for you post! i'm also fascinated by the connections between virgoness and listmaking--thinking of doing a poll soon about the astrological signs of listmakers, just for fun. i wonder what percentage are virgos.

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