Obsessed Are The Listmakers - Television Tropes & Idioms

So you've got things you want to do. Whether it's the laundry, the dishes, or your latest Evil Plan to dominate the universe, you have to keep track of them all. A checklist is a nice, handy, quick way... most of the time.

Some people take their listmaking just a little too seriously. They may plan every tiny part of the day on a list, right down to the things most people won't even bother with because they're just that obvious, such as "go to sleep". Or they may start to see completing the list as a goal in itself, have already completed all of the tasks except one, and spend extenuating effort trying to complete that last one. This tendency is obviously Truth in Television for many.

This is usually Played for Laughs in fiction, especially with comic villains.

Examples

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Film - Animated

Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons loves checklists and is often seen ticking off items in his, such as "Steal time machine", "Ruin science fair", and "Get that [comic book swearing symbols] boy". This leads to a rather tragic moment after his Evil Plan leads the world to be taken over by evil bowler hats in one alternate future. After fixing it, Lewis find his checklist and he has crossed out all of the Evil Plan items and added a new one: "?" It shows that he literally had no life apart from his petty desire for revenge on Cornelius Robinson for a minor childhood event.

Literature

In one of the Frog and Toad children's books by Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad make a list of everything they plan to do on a trip. Unfortunately, while on the trip, they lose it, and feel as if they literally couldn't do anything now because the list is gone. Just when night is falling, one of them suddenly remembers the last item on the list: "Go to sleep". So they write it on the ground, cross it out, and go to sleep right there.
The first Red Dwarf novel described Arnold Rimmer doing this repeatedly when he tried to take the officers' exams: he would meticulously create his study plan in such great detail that he ended up spending most of his time on it, then had to revise it for the time left, with the same effects until he had no time left for the actual studying.

Webcomics

In Kevin & Kell, Candace is really strict about procedures. In one story arc, Candace and her husband adopt a child, whose morning rituals, such as getting out of bed, brushing teeth and getting dressed, become strictly listed and timed. There are even lines on the floor of the child's bedroom detailing where to go in fulfilling the tasks!

Western Animation

In the Aladdin animated series, the recurring villain Mechanikles is found to have a checklist with items like "Do dishes, do laundry, destroy world". The heroes even comment: "Boy, is he serious". Later, he adds "Destroy Aladdin" to the list, and wonders to himself whether he should do the dishes before or after he destroys the world.
Kim Possible's Arch-Enemy Dr. Drakken dreams up a great plan to Take Over the World, but later forgets it. To avoid this happening again, he starts writing everything he plans to do on note-cards. This bites him when he forgets to write down a crucial step of his next plan and so misses it out, fatally endangering himself, his sidekick Shego, Kim and Ron. At this point, Shego bails out and leaves him to it.
In the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Winter Wrap-Up", there's Twilight Sparkle's checklist for preparing for Winter-Wrap Up:
Scarf, check! Saddle, check! Boots, check! Spike refusing to get up and going back to sleep, check! It's a good thing I'm so organized.
- Shown to a greater degree in "Look Before You Sleep", where Twilight is determined to throw her first slumber party literally by the book. It gets to the point where she is completely sidetracked when a tree falls into her house, trying to find out whether that's supposed to happen.
We'll do everything by the book. And that will make my slumber party officially fun!
- "Lesson Zero" opens with Twilight creating a checklist of the things she needs to make a checklist. Then the first thing she puts on her "to do" list for the day is to make said "to do" list.
  - Not to mention the final item on the day's "to do" list.
Spike: Triple-check checklist to make sure we didn't miss anything when we double-checked the checklist!
- In "It's About Time", Twilight starts panicking when she realises that she scheduled her next month so thoroughly she left no room to schedule the month after that.