Guide To Google Drive
Your Wishlist Is Your Best Personality Test
Paying attention to the things you love is an underrated way to get to know yourself
This piece is part of How Google Drive Can Make Every Corner of Your Life Easier
Right now, in a Google Doc under the heading “Things I Love,” I have the following list: velvet couch pillows. Leopard accessories. Rosy lip gloss. Pastel crocs. I wish I were joking about that last one, but I’ve lingered over enough targeted ads for those rubber shoes to accept the truth.
The Doc is a catch-all for items I’ve come across during trips to the store, during idle online browsing, or while scrolling social media — less a premeditated shopping list, more a brain dump of things that happen to bring me joy. When I happen across a product that screams “Ashley,” I feel like someone out there knows me, even if that “someone” is just the algorithm. Putting them all in one place feels like collecting vital information about who I am.
Practically speaking, my list is a helpful compass when I’m trying to make a purchasing decision — like a Pinterest board with words instead of pictures. I have a built-in answer when it’s time to update my living room decor (more velvet, please), and I can tell my Grandma what I really want for Christmas when she inevitably asks me about it every August.
More importantly, though, the Doc is also like a mirror. My husband is a neutrals-loving minimalist; ever since we met in 2010, I’ve slowly traded in my loud, colorful aesthetic for his quieter one. Several years into our relationship, I ended up with a dresser full of gray and black shirts, a living room filled with industrial furnishings, and a strange feeling of being bored by and disconnected from my surroundings.
Sure, I like a modern gray couch as much as the next person. But minimalism just isn’t me. Where my husband is reserved and soft-spoken, I’m whimsical and feminine and fun-loving, and…
