The List of 100 is a powerful technique you can use to generate ideas, clarify your thoughts, uncover hidden problems or get solutions to any specific questions you’re interested in.
The technique is very simple in principle: state your issue or question in the top of a blank sheet of paper and come up with a list of one hundred answers or solutions about it. “100 Ways to Generate Income”, “100 Ways to be More Creative” or “100 Ways to Improve my Relationships” are some examples.
“One hundred entries? Isn’t that way too many?”
Bear with me: it’s exactly this exaggeration that makes the technique powerful.
When starting your list you may believe that there’s no way to get it done. But then, at some point during the exercise, you will naturally have your subconscious mind naturally engaged in the process. That’s when you will uncover many new and surprising answers, and ideas will start flowing again. Making a List of 100 is a beautifully articulated cooperation between the conscious and subconscious minds tackling one single problem.
Unlike the related Idea Quota tool — whose primary goal is to acquire the habit of coming up with ideas — the goal of a List of 100 is to take your mind by surprise. While both techniques are based on the concept of getting good ideas from lots of ideas, the ideas generated by each method are usually different in kind. With the Idea Quota you tend to have more elaborate ideas, because you have time to incubate them throughout the day (often without being aware of it). With a List of 100 you tend to get more unexpected ideas, because you catch your subconscious off guard, not giving it any time for its behind-the-scenes editing.
Ground Rules
There are only two simple principles to keep in mind when making Lists of 100:
1. Do it at one sitting
This is the one crucial element for the technique to work. If you end up doing your hundred entries, though over many sessions, you’ll defeat the point of the technique. Before starting your list, make yourself comfortable and try to block all potential interruptions.
2. Eliminate distractions
Just like most brainstorming techniques, you should strive to eliminate all activities unrelated to idea generation during the brainstorming session. Just focus on getting the ideas out of your head as quickly as possible following these rules:
- Don’t judge or evaluate ideas; you’ll review them later.
- Don’t write complete words or sentences if that slows you down.
- Don’t stop to wonder how far in the list you are; number the lines from 1 to 100 in advance or use numbered lists if you’re using a word processor.
- Don’t worry too much about repeating entries; duplicates can shed light on your patterns of thought.
The Dynamics of Making Lists of 100
To understand why creating a List of 100 works, consider what happens during the process of making one. There are three distinct phases you will usually go through when making your list:
1. First 30 entries or so: where you escape circular thinking
The first items are the easiest to come up with. In this first phase, your conscious mind is still in charge and you’ll most probably just dump ideas you’re already familiar with.
2. Next 40 entries: where patterns emerge
In this phase you’ll start noticing recurring themes and patterns of thought. Phase two is usually the hardest one, as you may find it difficult to let go of the ideas you had in the first phase in order to come up with new, distinct ones.
Bear in mind that it’s exactly this struggle that enables you to get to the third and most fruitful phase, hence the importance of not giving up at this point.
3. Last 30 entries: where the gems are
At this point you will already have exhausted most “logical” answers, allowing your subconscious mind to express itself more freely. Don’t be surprised if you get at least one or two really nonsensical or seemingly illogical entries. You may feel tempted to not write them down (“How on earth did I think that?”). Write them down anyway: these wacky entries may sound far from profound, but it’s exactly those items you’re after.
Also, after coming up with so many entries, it’s not rare to experience a shift in perspective: items that you first felt as being awkward will seem to better fit now than when you started the list. Moreover, your whole attitude towards the problem can change as you develop your entries: you may even come to the conclusion that you should be dealing with a different list topic altogether.
Applications of Lists of 100
Although I have known a variation of the List of 100 technique for several years (thanks to Michael Gelb’s How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci), it was only recently that I realized the technique’s full potential by reading Kathleen Adams’s Journal to the Self: 22 Paths to Personal Growth. This is an excellent book that has many great journaling techniques — and the List of 100 has its own chapter.
The List of 100 technique can be used for a lot more than solving specific problems; it is a general-purpose personal development tool that can help increase your self-knowledge, motivate yourself, and much more. To illustrate its myriad of uses, find below a List of 100 Lists of 100. The list was mostly taken from Journal to the Self, and slightly adapted with some of my own ideas.
100 Things to Write a List of 100 About
- 100 Things I’m Grateful For
- 100 Ways I Could Nurture Myself
- 100 Ways I Sabotage Myself
- 100 Things I’m Good At
- 100 Things I Like About Myself
- 100 Questions I Want Answers
- 100 Ways To Improve My Life
- 100 Things I’ve Accomplished In My Life
- 100 Things I’m Feeling Stressed About
- 100 Things I’d Do If I Had Time
- 100 Things I Need Or Want To Do
- 100 Things I Want To Accomplish In The Next X Months
- 100 Things To Do Before I Die
- 100 Things That Are Going Right
- 100 Things That Are Going Wrong
- 100 Reasons I Want To Stay Married/Committed
- 100 Reasons I Don’t Want To Stay Married/Committed
- 100 Things I Want In A Partner/Relationship
- 100 Things I Have To Offer To A Partner/Relationship
- 100 Fears I Am Having Right Now
- 100 Things That Once Scared Me But Don’t Anymore
- 100 Reasons To Save Money
- 100 Things I Miss
- 100 Sacrifices I Have Made
- 100 Marketing Ideas For My Business
- 100 Ways I Can Make Money
- 100 Ways To Make A Difference
- 100 Jobs/Careers I’d Like To Have
- 100 Fears About Being A Multimillionaire
- 100 Things I Believe In
- 100 Achievements (Qualities) I Am Proud Of
- 100 Things I Value In Life
- 100 Ways I Help Others
- 100 Things That Turn Me On
- 100 Things That Turn Me Off
- 100 Judgments I Make
- 100 Things I Find Hard To Share
- 100 Things I’m Disappointed About
- 100 Things I’m Angry About
- 100 Things I’m Sad About
- 100 Things [Peoples, Places] I Love
- 100 Things To Do When I’m Depressed
- 100 Things To Do When I’m Alone
- 100 Rules I Have Broken
- 100 Skills I Have
- 100 Feelings I Am Having Right Now
- 100 Childhood Memories
- 100 Things My Parents Used To Say To Me
- 100 Ways In Which I’m Generous
- 100 Ways To Be More Productive
- 100 Things I Hate
- 100 Things I Want
- 100 Places I’d Like To Visit
- 100 Things I’d Like Someone To Tell Me
- 100 Things I’d Like To Hear
- 100 Things I’d Like To Tell My Child
- 100 Things I Want My Child To Know About Me
- 100 Reasons To Have A Baby
- 100 Reasons Not To Have A Baby
- 100 Adjectives Describing Myself
- 100 Decisions Other Have Made For Me
- 100 Decisions I Made That Turned Out Well
- 100 Things I’d Do If I Had Six Months To Live
- 100 Expectations Other Have Of Me
- 100 Expectations I Have Of Myself
- 100 Judgments I Haven’t Released
- 100 Ways To Be More Creative
- 100 Things I Could Carry In My Pocket
- 100 Things I’d Save If My House Were On Fire
- 100 Things I Want To Tell My Mother [Father]
- 100 Things I’d Never Tell My Mother [Father]
- 100 Financial Fears
- 100 Excuses I Make For Myself
- 100 Things I Need/Want To Control
- 100 Fears I Have About Giving Up Control
- 100 Answered Prayers
- 100 People I’d Like To Meet
- 100 Reasons Why I Get Jealous
- 100 People I Admire
- 100 Tasks I’ve Been Procrastinating
- 100 Memories From My Past
- 100 Things That Nourish Me
- 100 Things I Haven’t Finished
- 100 Things I’m Glad I’ve Done
- 100 Things I’ll Never Do Again
- 100 Ways To Generate Income
- 100 Principles To Live By
- 100 People I Want To Forgive
- 100 People I Want To Forgive Me
- 100 Things To Forgive Myself For
- 100 Mistakes I Have Made
- 100 Lessons I Have Learned
- 100 Ways To Be Healthier
- 100 Things That Make Me Cry
- 100 Things That Make Me Laugh
- 100 Things I’d Delegate
- 100 Thing I Want For My Birthday
- 100 Possessions I’m Tired Of Owning
- 100 Responsibilities That I’d Like To Avoid
- 100 Things To Write A List Of 100 About
What an awesome concept. I have heard similar ideas and strategies before, but never one so beautiful in its simplicity but amazingly powerful at the same time.
FABULOUS POST! Having such a list is what I need to keep me focus and on point.
Thank you.
My first time I heard this. I think this idea forces us into something like a meditative state when our thoughts are limited to a single idea. Noises from our mind specially negative ones effectively fades into the background because of our focus on the task. I’ll give it a try.
I love this site. I’ll put this in my blogroll so I can come back here often.
I decided to first try this idea with something “neutral” this evening.. some brainstorming for a client. And, man, you’re right! The first 10 – 20 items were simple, elementary fixes to their site, but the last 30 – 40 items were big, innovative (mostly) game changing ideas. Many of them were irrelevant or too expensive, but some gems were found.
Now I need to do some lists for more personal matters..!
This sounds very interesting. I have tried this kind of method before to find out the real reason of being upset or worried. But this … takes it to a different dimension all together. Although I must say that the prospect of sitting and making a list of 100 is scary
This is VERY good!
I love the ideas o inganging the subconsious mind in the process.
I will use this technique personally and in groups where new ideas are needed
i love the lists myself, i make a list for everything i ever need to do, and it always gets done. Im far too scatterbrained to do without.
Cool list. Gonna try it. I try Things to do list..come up with too many things I gotta do. Making note of book. I will buy it next time I go to bookstore or see if used bookstore has one. Your site is very informative. Many Thanks. Susan
Here’s a variation on this technique that helps us to get to “what’s really important”. It’s fun to do in a group, as well as alone.
There are 3 questions. Allow only 3 minutes to answer question one, writing as many answers as you can. Repeat the process for question two, then question three. So you’ll have a total of 9 minutes writing time. Question 1: What would you do if you only had ONE MONTH to live? Question 2: What would you do if you had only THREE MONTHS to live? Question 3: What would you do if you had only THREE YEARS to live?
If in a group, you can share answers and talk about what actions you can take as a result of the exercise. Since it’s short, it gets the introspective work going and the different time horizons provide a different perspective about what is important at different times.
Thanks for an awesome post. Like always, lots of value here!
@Pinky: Thanks for sharing your idea!
As a side note, the procedure you describe seems similar to the one in the Brainwriting technique…
…which leads me to think that perhaps it would be fun to have these questions answered in a ‘Brainwriting way’ (with people building answers on top of previous ones…)
Excellent. Interesting.
I appreciate your efforts and inputs.
Thanks for sharing.
http://leaders-workshop.blogspot.com/
This is a great idea. It reminds me of an exercise I read, I believe, in The Artist’s Way. In that one, you just write 3 pages, stream of consciousness every day. The idea is similar in that the first page usually is trivial surface material, but as the pages go on, you lose yourself in them and more and more subconscious material comes out.
Techniques that tap into the subconscious are always powerful.
I’ve been using top 10 lists on my blog about Time Management. It’s actually a really interesting way to get a good top 10 list – start with a list of 100 and when you’re done, just pick out the top 10. Otherwise the top 10 wouldn’t really be the 10 best ones, cause you just haven’t worked enough on them.
I’ll also add an example of a top 10 list from my blog: Top 10 biggest time leaks.
Its tough but its doable. Also its feaible only in one sitting. I have done this atleast once and failed twice.thanks for article.
Anyone interested in writing “100 Differences Between Rich/Poor People” ?
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”
The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing?
Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.
This story reminds me of an observation my own son made when he was 7. He told me that “In some ways, poor kids are luckier than rich kids.” When I asked him about that, he explained, “Because their parents probably don’t have jobs, so they can spend more time together.”
I loved this story.
The only problem is when you are living in a slum, with no food, clean water at all, no prospects for an dignified income, no clean air to breath, no medication, no eduction, and no birth control, it is really pretty miserable to be poor.
I like the 100 things to write about. I was browsing for some ideas to write about and this hit me in the right place. Anyway, through your blog I have discovered new things about the brain and the power within.
Wow what a great article, I’ll definitely remember this one. I never thought of it before but it makes perfect sense. It’ll definitely take a lot of thought power to come up with as many answers as possible, and I’ll undoubtedly run into writer’s block a lot during the process, but I’m excited to see what kind of answers I can come up with to my next big question
That is an interesting approach you must submit the idea to http://littlebookoflearning.com that way more people can benefit from it.
Nice post, I have done this for myself once. I was shocked at some of the stuff coming from my mind! Very fun exercise.
Its looking awesome technique.Thinking process is really very important.I think this technique just focused on thinking more and more and no diversion.I can conclude that most of us very busy in different tasks so we do not have time to think.So I think this idea will definitely world because Human mind is a great gift of God.Use it and get amazing results.
Really awesome guide.we can never relaxed until solved our mental problems.Its most common thing in our life that we always have to plan,think and ultimately reached to good solution.Your provide Technique is really awesome I will definitely implement it.
Great! Exactly what I was looking for. I’m gonna go do it right now with 100 beliefs that are holding me back and 100 ways that I add value to the world. I like the idea of using this to dump out negative beliefs; maybe when I write them down on paper, I can finally see the weakness of my unsupportive beliefs in the full light of day. As an added bonus, I’m looking forward to ripping up all those unsupportive beliefs afterward as well as posting my values where I can see them every day.
Great article, good and nice email pointing to it again as well. Not too pushy.
Thank you!
The list at the beginning frightened me off. Filling in 100 items at once!!
I now use it in a very personal way. I am just thinking of a creative project in Vienna (Austria). The overall idea is clear. But the detailed project layout could be done in many different ways. I am keeping the list on my desk and try to come up with 100 different project layouts. As I am still in the process of collecting the material/substance for the project I allow my mind time to wander. It helps with this creativity rule “kill your darling” – just not taking the first idea that pops into our mind.
Annette,
You’re absolutely right: much better than having one idea and sticking with it is having a 100 and killing 99.
Having said that, we both know that killing our darlings is much easier said than done, right?
While reading comments I found this idea of 101 things in 1001 days but website was not working so if someone is wondering what happened to the project then you can find it now at http://dayzeroproject.com/ and it’s really growing.
I’m going to create list myself as well
Later I also try to create other 100 or 101 lists
Thanks Ania for letting us know the new URL.
101 Things in 1001 Days is an awesome project!
100 Things to Write a List of 100 About
Thanks for this list, precious!
I actually used this technique in the opposite manner. A few years ago, after reading ‘journal to the self,’ I sat down and made a list of 100 reasons why I should not go back to graduate school. There are many practical and logical reasons. But by item #60 or so, I realized that for every logical reason that I came up with for NOT going to school, my spirit was countering with how each reason was just a small obstacle. It motivated me to go back and I will finish my PhD soon.
Ha! that’s a great example of reverse psychology at work! Thanks for sharing your story — I’ve never seen lists of 100 being applied “in reverse” like you did!
Great post! Just finished my first list of 100. It took me forever, but I still can’t believe that I could think of 100 things. I just hope that I’ll manage to act on them!
Ya its a huge list, so I don’t think ill be able to do all of them!
Luciano
Great post. I heard about this method but for some reason I was a little bit infidel about this method. So perhaps my reaction is part of my resistance. Although I find it interesting, I would like to know – just in case you have any idea – in which mental brain wave (state) is better to get best results. Happen to that it seems I have strong barriers, to concentrate or get into my subconscious. Is like my mind is jumping from here to there in milliseconds. Strange is that most probably I am more in Alfa or low Beta brainwave than High Beta during the day (not sure about this). Dou you have any idea about when and with whom this practice is more likely to have successful results?
Sorry Sebastian, but I have no idea…
But I’d be interested in knowing the results! If you try doing it in different mental states, would you come back here and report your results?
Thanks!
I would do it on my own usual mental state and I will post my results, although I have some problems with concentration. I believe is no not easy to go to the other Brain Wave State only with the intention; but since you are writing and focused I tend to think that at the beginning of the exercise you are in Beta BW state. I don´t know which state would be form the 80 to 100 idea. I suspect that for those ones who success on doing the list, something change in the brain at one moment in the process. For better understand of what really happen when ones get in the “flow of the subconscious”, it is possible to measure your BW with a BW measurement device. Unfortunately I do not have one. Any way the results probably would be good information. Probably is worth to do a research plan on this topic. Perhaps – per example – you can find possible hypothesis on part of the answer of why some people find what they are looking for and others do not.
By the way, many thanks for the e-book. It is all about themes that concern to me as well as the web site.
Sebastian
I agree that would be interesting information to know.
Unfortunately, I also don’t own a BW measurement device… Actually, I wasn’t aware we could “own” these devices — are there portable affordable BW devices available? I’d love to get more info on that.
Yeah, you can buy consumer-grade brainwave measuring devices for around $100, most of them are toys however. A little hacking is needed to use them for anything else than games. Some opensource hardware is also available.
Professional EEG devices cost way more, like thousands of dollars, I believe.
Hello Luciano,
As I was feeling very much down and stuck this morning, I looked for procrastination self-help tools and found your article.
I did the exercise and although it got harder towards the end, sticking to it has been highly rewarding indeed. The inner richness and abundance that I once felt found their outer expression with 100 financial freedom ideas. Thank you so much for sharing this great tool. Would you accept that I refer to it in my own blog? With best regards, Laure
Hi Laure,
Glad to know the tool worked so well for you!
Also, feel free to spread the word about this as much as you like, I appreciate it!