100+ Lists for Your Illustrated Journal

Lists can be an easy, practical, and wonderful addition to your pages. Making lists…. It’s a lot like eating potato chips.

Amy Cowen

Apr 21, 2024

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(This post is linked to this Sunday post. The audio above is Episode 496 of the Creativity Matters Podcast.)

Lists in Your Journal

I love a good list. My mom makes fun of me about lists. I think there’s nothing more grounding than making a list.

A list can:

Organize your thoughts
Spark curiosity
Highlight connections
Show scope
Clear your head
Encourage granularity
Give you an actionable map
Distill the amorphous into concrete lines
Bring things to light that you didn’t know were lurking
Make tasks seem more manageable

A list about lists. Lists invite the meta.

Someone is coming to visit? Make a list.

The world feels out of control? Make a list.

You want too many things? Make a list.

Someone else is getting ready to do something important and they don’t worry enough about the details? Make a list.

There are too many screenshots of books you’ve seen others mention in your photos folder. Make a list.

There are too many inks on your radar. Make a list.

We could go on.

It’s not surprising that Chat-GPT’s go-to format is a list.

Lists are scannable.
They are concrete.
They are orderly.
They might be numbered.
They might be bulleted.

When trying to sort out a problem, a mood, a next step, a life decision, or just what to watch next, some people might default to a diagram or a mind-map. I say go for a list.

Lists can be great in your sketchbooks and journals.

Lists in Journals and Sketchbooks

Through the years, I’ve often included “make a list” in the weekly prompts for Illustrate Your Week. Sometimes the prompts invite lists:

A sentence about each day
A gratitude a day
An adjective for each day

These don’t have to result in a list, but they could.

Can you make a list that doesn’t look like a list but still is sort of a list? Of course you can.

But you can also simply include lists.

Here are 12 100 (or so) listy things you might add to your journal, sketchbook, or planner:

What you ate for dinner (or lunch) each day
Your stack of library books (or upcoming book club picks)
The Wordle word each day
Three things you saw each day
A gratitude a day (or a right-now gratitude list)
Movies you want to see (or TV series you want to watch)
TV series you want to watch again
Names you remember from years past
Details you remember about a house you lived in as a child
Restaurants that have been favorites through the years
Things you “searched” this week (or tabs you have open)
Favorite words
Poets you should read or revisit
Songs you can play or want to learn
Things that scare you
Philosophers
Things that make you happy
Things that are good in your life right now
Things that worry you
Inks in your pens (weekly or monthly)
Earworms
Adages or proverbs
Numbers you need to memorize
People who inspire you
Things you need to ask someone
Things you are afraid to ask someone
Headlines
What you would take if you were going to the moon (starting with A, of course)
What you would do on a perfect day off
Things you learned this week
What you would do on an average day off
Places you would like to visit (but those kinds of lists make me sad)
Things you currently want
Things you currently need
Books you’ve never got around to reading but should
Things you hope to try this month or this year
Places in your city you love most
Foods you eat most
Affirmations
Glimmers
Games you play
Apps you use most
Wines you enjoy (or teas or coffees or beverages in general)
Foods that make you think of childhood
Things you no longer do
Things you see on a nearby shelf or table
Children’s books
Board or card games (ones you love, ones you miss, ones you played with kids, ones you never tried)
Things that confuse you (about people or the world)
Adjectives that describe you
Things you would like to change in your house
Things that make a good morning
Personal symbols
Things you wish
Things you want to draw
Reasons you can or can’t do this or that
Tasks you keep putting off
Things you wish you knew how to do
Things you would like to learn
Poems you carry
Trails, parks, or playgrounds
Books you recommend or use when asked for a “favorite book”
Habits
Games you used to play (you know, like Tomb Raider, or even farther back, Pitfall, Q-Bert, and on and on and on)
Recipes you want to try
Songs on a playlist
The names of people you remember from your childhood
The names of your teachers (and your kids’ teachers)
Things you collect
People who have ghosted you (ha!)
Library branches in your area
Ice cream flavors
Palindromes
Favorite pangrams
Items in a wardrobe capsule
Donations (as you clear spaces)
Things that are broken or breaking
Things you keep putting off for “someday”
Signs and symbols
Everyday carries (or what’s in your bag)
Episodes of a series as you watch it
Things that made you laugh
Historical events
Things you saw on a walk
Things that are in bloom
Things you don’t like to do
Favorite podcasts
Birds you saw this week
Paints in your palette
Colored pencils or markers you use
Inside jokes or family lore
Strategies for self care
The running grocery list
Household projects
Who you would have tea or coffee with
What you wore
Places you’ve lived
Favorite birds
Things that matter
Things you wish were different
Things that have changed
Ways you practice mindfulness

We could go on. I expected to share 12. A wholesome 12. But who can stop with 12?

We could easily list 100 more. We could play the “to the moon” game. We could get real and include lists that are hard or challenging or honest. We could walk on the sunny side or off the beaten trail. We could focus on simple lists, whimsical lists, and observational lists. There are so many more things that come to mind.

The takeaway is that lists are building blocks.

If you don’t know where to start, make a list.

If you want to improve your illustrated journaling or sketchnoting skills, draw icons next to as many things on the list as you can. This is a great way to practice on-the-spot icon drawing and both build and refresh your visual library of simple line art.

Here’s your journal task for this week….

Read through the list and make a note of which lists jump out as “I should do that” lists. Share the number string in the comments. Add your short “list” of “selected list ideas” to your journal.