Katie Holland: Tick me off as having stuck to the list

LIST LOVER: Some people just can't resist a good list. PHOTO/FILE

I'VE NEVER made a New Year's resolution. Mainly because it always felt like I'd just be setting myself up for failure.

Resolutions carry with them a pressure to achieve and, Lord knows, I'm enough of a worrier without adding to my own stress. So instead of a resolution, this year I am writing a list.

I've always been a sucker for a good list. Scattered around my house, on the back of envelopes, bills and paper towels, I am constantly finding random old lists. Jobs for the day, shopping lists, pros and cons around decisions that need to be made. Whether to take a holiday, end or continue a relationship, buy a house, take a job.

Half the time I forget to take the lists with me when I go shopping or never look at them again, but the act of writing them usually clears the head and does the trick. I've even been known to write something new on the list after I have already done it, just so I can tick it off.

Writing "life wish lists" covering aspects of my life I want to change or improve is a habit I've got into in recent years. I write and save them as notes on my phone at odd hours of the night, whenever the urge takes me. If I don't achieve them all at once, it's not a failure, you can just look on them as works in progress.

Looking back, in August 2013 I had nine points on my list, titled "Goals". I've already achieved five of them, including buying a house before Christmas (I snuck in there with weeks to spare), while works still in progress included getting fit.

June 2014 was my next list, imaginatively titled "New goals". In this, I got more specific, my favourite being "sort out vege garden" and "keeping house tidy and in good order". Either I was still revelling in the new homeowner phase or am somewhat of a geek. While the vege garden did get temporarily "sorted out," it soon after reverted to a jungle. Apparently, weeds keep on coming back, which surely makes weeding a little pointless? But I digress.

"Healthy eating. Effort" (I can be stern in my instructions to myself) and "new car" have had mixed successes. Yes, the following month saw the start of a five-month healthy eating blitz, but Larry the Laser remains and, having cruised about 1400km over Christmas with no call for the AA, I've had second thoughts about replacing him.

Just two months later, in August 2014 at 1.36am, there was one entitled "Next 12 months". Which, I can safely assume, was my plan for the following 12 months. My lack of housekeeping and DIY skills were obviously of concern at the time, with "Keep house in good repair" popping up again. The old chestnuts "focus on saving" and a weight goal (with a 4kg allowable spread, I am nothing if not realistic) made an entrance. It's only now I realise before Christmas I came within 2kg of that upper weight, then along came holiday eating. Lucky, I have another seven months to tick that one off.

Then I come to the most recent list on my phone. "Speight gold 18-24, Finish powder, tootjpaste" (no time for spellchecking at this time of year) and "Kt" (usually code for "and whatever else Katie wants"). A shopping list which perhaps went some way to explaining the Christmas weight gain. But at least I was doing the dishes, which means I can tick off "keeping house tidy".

So this week, I've been thinking about what will be on my January list. There'll be some of the old favourites; after all saving and fitness and weeding are battles we must never shirk from.

But there'll also be some new ones: 2015 is going to be the year of being proactive. Because if we don't make and tick off our own lists, whether on paper or just in our heads, no one else is going to do it for us.