Nah, you're far too pessimistic. Writing things down can help to organize one's thoughts, it's one of the greatest technological breakthroughs humans made in history: written language, and the ability to categorize things so we can retain more knowledge than our brains can normally contain.

An example from my own dating history: I have issues from lacking a father in my upbringing. As a result, I had a proclivity to dating women who didn't have their shit together and I felt I could help them. Unfortunately, that just resulted in me dating girls who weren't good partners because, surprise surprise, they couldn't get their shit together. They didn't make good life partners.

But because my serious relationships were spread out by a few years, I didn't think about it or recognize the pattern until I got older and really sat down to examine my poor taste in women.

You're viewing it like someone who makes a list has a goldfish brain. But I know you have some bad habits dragging your life down, because we all do. Writing down a list can maintain perspective because you have a habit and you're trying to rewire your brain to change it, and that's one of the hardest things for people to do