To list or not to list, that is the question...
Fascinating topic and I agree with everything that's been said about the pros and cons of listing. I keep a sort of running total as the year goes on but must confess I don't do a great deal of dashing around any more just to increase it.
I once made the mistake a few years ago of having a really good first half to the year (with a couple of trips 'oop' north) and thinking hmmm, I wonder if 300 is gettable? And then being tempted to do a mild impersonation of a Norfolk headless chicken for the rest of the year. Ended on 285, which is still my highest year total and then added up the birds I'd missed or dipped on and felt disappointed, until I caught myself thinking, what on earth are you doing woman?! Don't feel disappointed at a personal best, even if it's less than you set out for. So that was my one and only foray into trying to beat myself, as it were, and whenever I've felt the urge since, a lie down in a darkened room or several whiskies usually brings me to my senses.
I do get a great deal of satisfaction from making an extra effort during migration or doing patch listing - I got unreasonably excited recently over a patch tick of a flyover Shoveller at Dersingham Bog so you can see how sad I can get... Although having said that I'm not that bothered about listing in general, I do seem to keep a worrying number of lists! I keep a patch list for several local patches, a Norfolk list, a UK life list, a sort of year list, a self found list, and a garden / house list (still trying to get that flyover Snow Goose with the pinkies!). But I wouldn't say I go out of my way to do a great deal each year just to increase list totals, which to me is nothing more than a numbers game.
On the other hand, there are certain birds each year I make a point of seeing and don't feel a year is complete without them. It's a poor year when I don't see as many raptors as possible and a positive catastrophe if the eagle count is low. I also have a pile of birds which are particular favourites which I make an extra effort to make sure I see each year, but it's not particularly for the sake of a list - just that they're special birds or ones I don't see that often. I hadn't seen Shorelarks for a year or so, so made an effort to get out for them but it wasn't for the sake of my year list. I'd probably make an extra effort for any lifers within a reasonable distance of home (i.e. within 2 hours drive of West Norfolk). I was very jammy with the EC Warbler as we were coming back from Holy Island that day so it was a 20 mile diversion but I wouldn't have gone from here.
In the days when I did semi-seriously attempt a year list, I did feel it made me go out and visit places I might not have done otherwise, and make me search for specific species which in turn led to finding other stuff. But I've done similar daft things as others have mentioned of leaving a good spot or a good vis mig day somewhere just for a tick. But as I increasingly head towards becoming a grumpy old wrinkly, I find I don't enjoy crowds, rushing about or driving long distances just for one bird any more.
I certainly find more enjoyment if I've got a kind of 'project' on the go, which I think is why I enjoy survey work so much as it gives an added incentive to your birding. Doing the BTO Atlas stuff in the last couple of years has really made me look at and learn the 10km sq of TF63 on my doorstep, which I thought I knew but it's yielded quite a few surprises.
Enough rambling on....
Irene