On lists (really this time)

I am obsessed with lists. If I have a piece of paper and a pen, I scratch out those to-do's or that grocery list with heated fervor. I love making little check marks beside all the items, and I feel such a sense of power and exhilaration when everything is checked off. The problem is that after I am finished making the list, I can't always remember where I put it. Or what was on it in the first place.
I think that lists make me feel somewhat organized, though they are a reflection of what is going on inside my brain: a clutter of ideas and thoughts that refuse to stay in any kind of order. I always say, "I know there's something I forgot, but I cannot (for the life of me) remember what it is." Invariably, I remember whatever it was 2 days later, when the list is either lost or completed, or the deadline has passed.
And what's more? If I write something down and lose the list, my brain knows that I have it documented somewhere and feels free to chunk that particular piece of information into the recesses of my memory, in a place where only heavy psychoanalysis can reach. And I'm not going to see a shrink to figure out what I should have bought for dinner last night. Kind of ridiculous, huh? Maybe, just maybe, I should make a list of everything that I worry about (believe me, it's a lot) and throw it away. That's been on my to-do list for awhile....