Advice on writing a short personal statement for grad school?

When I look online, there is a ton of advice-some with checklists. However, they seem to mostly concern longer personal statements where 20-30 points can be made about oneself. What is required of me is a 300-word-max personal statement about my interest, work and goals. In the interest of keeping it within word-limit and hit all three points (interest, work, goals), my essay is coming out very terse and sounds more like a laundry list. Is there a special way to write it? What should I focus on? or any advice at all...?