Part of my job involves writing 3 ‘Top 5’ lists every Tuesday for our free weekly publication. This usually involves me scrounging around trying to find tips on beating hay fever, avoiding cancer or finding the best life insurance policy all while getting increasingly bored and creative with what I write (today I managed to squeeze a Jane Austen quote* into a top 5 about getting ready for summer).

Anyway, while the top 5’s are a pain to write I can’t help but admit I love reading lists myself. Who doesn’t love a list?! We all do. Accept it.

So I am presenting you with my top 3 on why people love lists:

1. Pretending to be organised there is nothing more satisfying than listing and categorizing things. Humans love it. Writing a to do list is way more fun than actually doing whatever it is you have to do. I would say writing a list and reading lists would be number 1 on the ‘Top 10 ways to procrastinate’ list.

2 Lists are easy to skim they often have a bold section at the start of the sentence mitigating any need to read the paragraph underneath them. So they require little dedication from the reader. You may notice that’s exactly what I’ve done here. Please read it all though.

3 Lists are black and white literally (unless you use a blue pen) and figuratively. They either affirm what the reader thinks should be on the list or enrage the reader with their inaccuracy, sparking a fun debate between believers-of and haters-of the list.

There you have it, my list about lists. Expect to see a lot more lists around here. I’m list crazy.

(* ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that people in bathers look better with a tan’. Yes. I went there)