Todo apps are meant for robots(blog.frantic.im)
blog.frantic.im
Todo apps are meant for robots
https://blog.frantic.im/all/todo-apps-are-meant-for-robots/
206 comments
I followed a similar path.
Nowadays I just use the Notes app from my mac. I keep a primary note named "daily" where I write at the top the date and everything interesting for the day. If there is anything important enough I want to keep it for more days I move it to a separate note. If I realize I need something I did 3 weeks ago it is easy to find too. It syncs with my phone, works offline, and imposes as little structure as possible which is something I like for the reasons you explained.
Nowadays I just use the Notes app from my mac. I keep a primary note named "daily" where I write at the top the date and everything interesting for the day. If there is anything important enough I want to keep it for more days I move it to a separate note. If I realize I need something I did 3 weeks ago it is easy to find too. It syncs with my phone, works offline, and imposes as little structure as possible which is something I like for the reasons you explained.
Same here! I think at least outside of your day job if you have one, as a tech-savvy person you should use your OS with its standard tools as the TODO app.
Of course you could find a better 3rd party mail client, probably a better Notes app too, but the improvement in terms of your productivity will be marginal (if not negative in some instances). Good OS makers copy many of the good things from 3rd party apps anyway, right?
Team collaboration and productivity though is a different beast of a problem. I hate Trello, Asana, Jira - all of them. Because this kind of tools are generally B2B, the decision to buy is usually made by the wrong people. They are generally made to please the decision makers more than the actual every day users. "Let's use X, it has the timeline feature!". Well how about its UI for actually dealing with tasks (creating, closing, moving, etc) is pretty awful?
All in all it feels so strange when looking back at the decades of the evolution of the PC (and the Internet!) that we still haven't figured out how the computers can help us collaborate more efficiently. But then maybe it's because the way we collaborate changes all the time - just take the move from corporate to modern startup-y way of running companies.
Of course you could find a better 3rd party mail client, probably a better Notes app too, but the improvement in terms of your productivity will be marginal (if not negative in some instances). Good OS makers copy many of the good things from 3rd party apps anyway, right?
Team collaboration and productivity though is a different beast of a problem. I hate Trello, Asana, Jira - all of them. Because this kind of tools are generally B2B, the decision to buy is usually made by the wrong people. They are generally made to please the decision makers more than the actual every day users. "Let's use X, it has the timeline feature!". Well how about its UI for actually dealing with tasks (creating, closing, moving, etc) is pretty awful?
All in all it feels so strange when looking back at the decades of the evolution of the PC (and the Internet!) that we still haven't figured out how the computers can help us collaborate more efficiently. But then maybe it's because the way we collaborate changes all the time - just take the move from corporate to modern startup-y way of running companies.
Your comment reminded me about a passage from Red Dwarf:
In fact, it was now possible for Rimmer to revise solidly for three months and not learn anything at all.
The first week of study, he would always devote to the construction of a revision timetable. At school Rimmer was always at his happiest colouring in geography maps: under his loving hand, the ice-fields of Europa would be shaded a delicate blue, the subterranean silica deposits of Ganymede would be rendered, centimetre by painstaking centimetre, a bright and powerful yellow, and the regions of frozen methane on Pluto slowly became a luscious, inviting green. Up until the age of thirteen, he was constantly head of the class in geography. After this point, it became necessary to know and understand the subject, and Rimmer's marks plunged to the murky depths of 'F' for fail.
He brought his love of cartography to the making of revision timetables. Weeks of patient effort would be spent planning, designing and creating a revision timetable which, when finished, were minor works of art.
Every hour of every day was subdivided into different study periods, each labelled in his lovely, tiny copperplate hand; then painted over in watercolours, a different colour for each subject, the colours gradually becoming bolder and more urgent shades as the exam time approached. The effect was as if a myriad tiny rainbows had splintered and sprinkled across the poster-sized sheet of creamwove card.
The only problem was this: because the timetables often took seven or eight weeks, and sometimes more, to complete, by the time Rimmer had finished them the exam was almost on him. He'd then have to cram three months of astronavigation revision into a single week. Gripped by an almost deranging panic, he'd then decide to sacrifice the first two days of that final week to the making of another timetable. This time for someone who had to pack three months of revision into five days.
Because five days now had to accommodate three months' work, the first thing that had to go was sleep. To prepare for an unrelenting twenty-four hours a day sleep-free schedule, Rimmer would spend the whole of the first remaining day in bed – to be extra, ultra fresh, so he would be able to squeeze three whole months of revision into four short days.
Within an hour of getting up the next morning, he would feel inexplicably exhausted, and start early on his supply of Go-Double-Plus caffeine tablets. By lunchtime he'd overdose, and have to make the journey down to the ship's medical unit for a sedative to help him calm down. The sedative usually sent him off to sleep, and he'd wake up the following morning with only three days left, and an anxiety that was so crippling he could scarcely move. A month of revision to be crammed into each day.
At this point he would start smoking. A lifelong non-smoker, he'd become a forty-a-day man. He'd spend the whole day pacing up and down his room, smoking three or four cigarettes at a time, stopping occasionally to stare at the titles in his bookcase, not knowing which one to read first, and popping twice the recommended dosage of dog-worming tablets, which he erroneously believed to contain amphetamine.
Realizing he was getting nowhere, he'd try to get rid of his soul-bending tension by treating himself to an evening in one of Red Dwarf's quieter bars. There he would sit, in the plastic oak-beamed 'Happy Astro' pub, nursing a small beer, grimly trying to be light-hearted and totally relaxed. Two small beers and three hours of stomach-knotting relaxation later, he would go back to his bunk and spend half the night awake, praying to a God he didn't believe in for a miracle that couldn't happen.
Two days to go, and ravaged by the combination of anxiety, nicotine, caffeine tablets, alcohol he wasn't used to, dog-worming pills, and overall exhaustion, he would sleep in till mid-afternoon.
After a long scream, he would rationalize that the day was a total write-off, and the rest of the afternoon would be spent shopping for the three best alarm clocks money could buy. This would often take five or six hours, and he would arrive back at his sleeping quarters exhausted, but knowing he was fully prepared for the final day's revision before his exam.
Waking at four-thirty in the morning, after exercising, showering and breakfasting, he would sit down to prepare a final, final revision table, which would condense three months of revision into twelve short hours. This done, he would give up and go back to bed. Maybe he didn't know a single thing about astronavigation, but at least he'd be fresh for the exam the next day.
Which is why Rimmer failed exams.
--Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf, 1989
In fact, it was now possible for Rimmer to revise solidly for three months and not learn anything at all.
The first week of study, he would always devote to the construction of a revision timetable. At school Rimmer was always at his happiest colouring in geography maps: under his loving hand, the ice-fields of Europa would be shaded a delicate blue, the subterranean silica deposits of Ganymede would be rendered, centimetre by painstaking centimetre, a bright and powerful yellow, and the regions of frozen methane on Pluto slowly became a luscious, inviting green. Up until the age of thirteen, he was constantly head of the class in geography. After this point, it became necessary to know and understand the subject, and Rimmer's marks plunged to the murky depths of 'F' for fail.
He brought his love of cartography to the making of revision timetables. Weeks of patient effort would be spent planning, designing and creating a revision timetable which, when finished, were minor works of art.
Every hour of every day was subdivided into different study periods, each labelled in his lovely, tiny copperplate hand; then painted over in watercolours, a different colour for each subject, the colours gradually becoming bolder and more urgent shades as the exam time approached. The effect was as if a myriad tiny rainbows had splintered and sprinkled across the poster-sized sheet of creamwove card.
The only problem was this: because the timetables often took seven or eight weeks, and sometimes more, to complete, by the time Rimmer had finished them the exam was almost on him. He'd then have to cram three months of astronavigation revision into a single week. Gripped by an almost deranging panic, he'd then decide to sacrifice the first two days of that final week to the making of another timetable. This time for someone who had to pack three months of revision into five days.
Because five days now had to accommodate three months' work, the first thing that had to go was sleep. To prepare for an unrelenting twenty-four hours a day sleep-free schedule, Rimmer would spend the whole of the first remaining day in bed – to be extra, ultra fresh, so he would be able to squeeze three whole months of revision into four short days.
Within an hour of getting up the next morning, he would feel inexplicably exhausted, and start early on his supply of Go-Double-Plus caffeine tablets. By lunchtime he'd overdose, and have to make the journey down to the ship's medical unit for a sedative to help him calm down. The sedative usually sent him off to sleep, and he'd wake up the following morning with only three days left, and an anxiety that was so crippling he could scarcely move. A month of revision to be crammed into each day.
At this point he would start smoking. A lifelong non-smoker, he'd become a forty-a-day man. He'd spend the whole day pacing up and down his room, smoking three or four cigarettes at a time, stopping occasionally to stare at the titles in his bookcase, not knowing which one to read first, and popping twice the recommended dosage of dog-worming tablets, which he erroneously believed to contain amphetamine.
Realizing he was getting nowhere, he'd try to get rid of his soul-bending tension by treating himself to an evening in one of Red Dwarf's quieter bars. There he would sit, in the plastic oak-beamed 'Happy Astro' pub, nursing a small beer, grimly trying to be light-hearted and totally relaxed. Two small beers and three hours of stomach-knotting relaxation later, he would go back to his bunk and spend half the night awake, praying to a God he didn't believe in for a miracle that couldn't happen.
Two days to go, and ravaged by the combination of anxiety, nicotine, caffeine tablets, alcohol he wasn't used to, dog-worming pills, and overall exhaustion, he would sleep in till mid-afternoon.
After a long scream, he would rationalize that the day was a total write-off, and the rest of the afternoon would be spent shopping for the three best alarm clocks money could buy. This would often take five or six hours, and he would arrive back at his sleeping quarters exhausted, but knowing he was fully prepared for the final day's revision before his exam.
Waking at four-thirty in the morning, after exercising, showering and breakfasting, he would sit down to prepare a final, final revision table, which would condense three months of revision into twelve short hours. This done, he would give up and go back to bed. Maybe he didn't know a single thing about astronavigation, but at least he'd be fresh for the exam the next day.
Which is why Rimmer failed exams.
--Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf, 1989
This comment has put Red Dwarf to the top of my reading list. I was an avid fan of the tv show and never thought to read the books.
I think we all see a bit of Rimmer in ourselves when it comes to preparing for for an exam.
I think we all see a bit of Rimmer in ourselves when it comes to preparing for for an exam.
Glad you enjoyed it and that it inspired you to read the book! This passage had been banging around in my head since I read it 10-15 years ago. Probably because it was also me. :)
Me three! There should be some book/movie/series where the hero is some average Joe, does nothing heroic, no twists and turns, no rising from the ashes stuff, but lives his life happily.
You may enjoy various pieces of media labelled "slice of life", although this genre is often misapplied.
This basically describes all the bullet journals you see on the internet.
Fully agree. Have come to similar conclusions with time.
Nowadays the only tool I'm using is https://workflowy.com. It's basically an infinitely nested list that you can expand / collapse or zoom into. Extremely fast to dump items into and delete afterwards.
I use it as a cache or stack for my immediate more complicated developer tasks. Once something's done - delete it.
Here's a referral link if you'd like to get me (and yourself) more free items: https://workflowy.com/invite/200f24b.lnx
Nowadays the only tool I'm using is https://workflowy.com. It's basically an infinitely nested list that you can expand / collapse or zoom into. Extremely fast to dump items into and delete afterwards.
I use it as a cache or stack for my immediate more complicated developer tasks. Once something's done - delete it.
Here's a referral link if you'd like to get me (and yourself) more free items: https://workflowy.com/invite/200f24b.lnx
The problem with just bookmarking is link rot, I've had a few links 404 or the domain disappear - instead I use wallabag (imperfect but good enough) to pull in the content for another day
That's nice, I generally like setups like this that capture content and give me control over things (I've seen something similar on HN with passively saving any papers in PDF format viewed in the browser and then building fulltext search on top if, or e.g. approaches like this: https://github.com/thesephist/monocle).
That being said, in the spirit of my comment — I honestly don't care too much about what I might be missing due to sites going down etc. anymore. The truly great stuff I save somewhere offline, but that's one or two levels past all the random things I currently use bookmarks for.
That being said, in the spirit of my comment — I honestly don't care too much about what I might be missing due to sites going down etc. anymore. The truly great stuff I save somewhere offline, but that's one or two levels past all the random things I currently use bookmarks for.
I just discovered SingleFile, a plugin for Firefox which does an epic job at creating an offline copy of the webpage in a single HTML. I'll sync my repo across all my devices for offline/forever access to them.
Seconded. I am continuously astounded at how capable that little extension is. Rarely am I disappointed in the result.
I have exactly the same problem, I've used Notes, I've used Trello and eventually settled on Notion.
I tried out some complicated templates, tried making my own but in the end I've gone back to a pretty unorganised Trello style list in Notion.
Every time I use it I feel bad that I'm not using it 'properly', in a way it almost has so many features that it becomes too much and I use none of them.
I tried out some complicated templates, tried making my own but in the end I've gone back to a pretty unorganised Trello style list in Notion.
Every time I use it I feel bad that I'm not using it 'properly', in a way it almost has so many features that it becomes too much and I use none of them.
I know this probably won't make much sense, but as much as I want to do this, I don't really know how.
That's the point, there is no "method" to discover, it just has to click at some point that it's OK like this. Not sure what brought it about in my case, but hope you'll arrive there as well.
> there is no "method" to discover
Exactly, that's what makes it so great, but also so hard. Maybe it'd be easier if I didn't have a load of notes I want to keep already.
If I were to take a guess about why its so hard to know where to start (truth be told I dont really know myself), it would be where those notes go and where new notes go. But I guess the point of this "system" or lack thereof is that it doesn't matter, and if it does my brain will remind me of it until its done.
I've got some nice notebooks arriving tomorrow, maybe using them instead will help me transition (the extra friction to take notes will perhaps make me take less)
Exactly, that's what makes it so great, but also so hard. Maybe it'd be easier if I didn't have a load of notes I want to keep already.
If I were to take a guess about why its so hard to know where to start (truth be told I dont really know myself), it would be where those notes go and where new notes go. But I guess the point of this "system" or lack thereof is that it doesn't matter, and if it does my brain will remind me of it until its done.
I've got some nice notebooks arriving tomorrow, maybe using them instead will help me transition (the extra friction to take notes will perhaps make me take less)
It's about habits and what's your goal. I use Habinator https://habinator.com to remind myself where I want to end up. Working pretty well after a year...
I use a Todo app every day, starting in the morning. Almost all of my tasks are recurring, well defined, and relatively short. E.g. "triage email inbox every day", "vacuum house every week on Saturday", "upper body workout every second day", "renew passport every 10 years".
For me this works well, because: * I don't forget to get things done * I don't have to think about what I need to do, the app shows me a daily list * I get a small feeling of accomplishment for every task I complete (gamificaion), and for finishing all my tasks (daily task inbox zero).
It works for me.
For me this works well, because: * I don't forget to get things done * I don't have to think about what I need to do, the app shows me a daily list * I get a small feeling of accomplishment for every task I complete (gamificaion), and for finishing all my tasks (daily task inbox zero).
It works for me.
Same for me. I started very recently but it improved my productivity very sharply (not just work, also hobbies (music) and cleaning). I use habitica (no affiliation).
I built and use https://flathabits.com daily.
Keeping habits and todo/tasks list separately helps me prevent the latter from monopolizing habit time.
ps. Flat Habits is backed by org (if that's important to you), but this is purely an internal detail if you just want a simple app.
Keeping habits and todo/tasks list separately helps me prevent the latter from monopolizing habit time.
ps. Flat Habits is backed by org (if that's important to you), but this is purely an internal detail if you just want a simple app.
It works for you, because you didn't do what a commenter said elsewhere here.
> We keep adding things we "should get to at some point"
Maybe it's time for a completely new perspective on TODO lists.
> We keep adding things we "should get to at some point"
Maybe it's time for a completely new perspective on TODO lists.
For me calendar and remainder helps me achieve it. Having calendar for and ideal day really helps me navigate around the day.
What do you use as a daily task list app? I'm using TickTick on Android, but daily tasks is not its strong point.
MS to-do is my go-to. Multi platform and has all the features I need. Open source Linux option is “AO” on GitHub.
https://github.com/klaussinani/ao
https://github.com/klaussinani/ao
I use TickTick, and it’s daily task seems to work well for me. I have a “morning check” and a “night check”, each with some sub-tasks.
Todoist - https://todoist.com
What app do you use? I've yet to find something that works really well with recurring tasks.
I'm not the OP, but Loop Habit Tracker works well for me.
Todoist - https://todoist.com
I really wish the CEO would get off his own koolaid and add start dates. I get it, you don't use them. I would find them useful. I spend a good few hours a week trying to work around the lack of start dates in Todoist haha. One day I'll pay someone to set up Omnifocus for me and switch to that.
It would be super convenient and would stop my checking out every god damn todo app that comes across my radar too
I know, break tasks down further if they need a start date, whatever. It doesn't work for me, I tried. I don't want to spend my life organising a todo app I just want to do the things in the todo app and then go lie down
Honestly I'd prefer due date be replaced with start date as far as which is more useful. Using Todoist in that way doesn't work well either, I tried.
It would be super convenient and would stop my checking out every god damn todo app that comes across my radar too
I know, break tasks down further if they need a start date, whatever. It doesn't work for me, I tried. I don't want to spend my life organising a todo app I just want to do the things in the todo app and then go lie down
Honestly I'd prefer due date be replaced with start date as far as which is more useful. Using Todoist in that way doesn't work well either, I tried.
I think you need a calendar app for that for now.
I use Todoist as well and like it, but I'm not sure I'd say it "works really well with recurring tasks".
If you schedule a task as "every Wednesday" then a few weeks later reschedule the task to Friday it doesn't ask "this instance or all of them?" or something. That entire task series is now scheduled for that particular Friday, and once you've ticked it off you won't get any more reminders ever.
If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. :)
If you schedule a task as "every Wednesday" then a few weeks later reschedule the task to Friday it doesn't ask "this instance or all of them?" or something. That entire task series is now scheduled for that particular Friday, and once you've ticked it off you won't get any more reminders ever.
If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. :)
Oh ya the rescheduling for recurring tasks is one of the places that hurts.
Would you mind sending a report via https://todoist.com/help?
I will do the same now (I didn't as I don't reschedule recurring tasks often)
Would you mind sending a report via https://todoist.com/help?
I will do the same now (I didn't as I don't reschedule recurring tasks often)
I just created a tasks for "every Tue", reschedule to tomorrow (Wed)
After marking it as finished the next one is still on next Tue
Ah, it seems like if you choose a date in the date picker, or from the "Today, Tomorrow, etc" list it keeps "Every Tuesday" in the text box and gives the behaviour you describe. I always schedule by typing, so I end up replacing "Every Tuesday" with "Wednesday" and then it doesn't work.
Can't help you in that case!
This is my experience too. In fact I stopped using todoist due to how it handled recurring tasks - which, like you, is a huge part of how I stay organized. For me, "remember the milk" does recurring correctly and is very low friction.
I used it as well. It has its quirks, but I think it addresses a lot of the OPs concerns.
My partner swears by it and uses it a lot.
Remember The Milk works better for recurring tasks than todoist in my opinion
Habinator is the best I've found.
Todos and reminders are different things.
Almost all Todo apps have the problem of showing you stuff that you are incapable of just seeing things you _can accomplish right now_.
I think people underestimate the amount of pain that comes from, over and over again, looking at a list of things you can't do anything about at a moment X.
The only TODO app that I've found get this at least 95% right is Omnifocus with its billions of settings. Though there's still sometimes a wish to have a "this part of the todo tree is still under construction" node.
I think that this absolutely fundamental failing has soured everyone on almost all of these kinds of apps. Which is a shame, because _if you put in the work to actually write out stuff_, it becomes much easier to get stuff done, and not feel bad about stuff.
People drag on GTD but David Allen is basically right (at least if you are living in the mindset of wanting to really work yourself hard). It's the task management equivalent of doing your budgetting seriously. Yeah, sometimes the problem is just that you need to make more money, but when you have your budget under control a lot of stress just disappears.
I think people underestimate the amount of pain that comes from, over and over again, looking at a list of things you can't do anything about at a moment X.
The only TODO app that I've found get this at least 95% right is Omnifocus with its billions of settings. Though there's still sometimes a wish to have a "this part of the todo tree is still under construction" node.
I think that this absolutely fundamental failing has soured everyone on almost all of these kinds of apps. Which is a shame, because _if you put in the work to actually write out stuff_, it becomes much easier to get stuff done, and not feel bad about stuff.
People drag on GTD but David Allen is basically right (at least if you are living in the mindset of wanting to really work yourself hard). It's the task management equivalent of doing your budgetting seriously. Yeah, sometimes the problem is just that you need to make more money, but when you have your budget under control a lot of stress just disappears.
+1 on this... My serial distraction until I finally switched to paper was writing TODO apps for myself, then abandoning them. The only one that worked well for an extended period of time would literally show you one task to do. You could do it, or choose one of the options like "cannot do for X hours" (e.g. I need to vacuum and someone else in the house is asleep, or whatever), "not enough mental energy" (it would postpone and filter out the tasks you assigned the same level of mental energy, I was going to add a feature where that is deduced automatically), etc., in which case it would show you another single task to do. You could never see more than one task.
Wow, that sounds amazing. Do you have it somewhere?
See my `td` variant for console here:
https://github.com/vlisivka/bash-modules/blob/master/bash-mo...
They are easy to make.
https://github.com/vlisivka/bash-modules/blob/master/bash-mo...
They are easy to make.
Can't find it :( It was a self-hosted web app though, so it's probably not that useful anymore. I'm pretty sure 3 generations of web stacks were created, over-hyped and deprecated since I wrote it ;)
In GTD that is fixed through "contexts". E.g. you have a context "phone calls to make", and then next time you have time and are near a phone, you can start working on those tasks. Many todo apps have some sort of mechanism for that, or is this not what you mean since you seem to be familiar with GTD?
GTD has a lot of solutions for various types of todo list problems, but then again, you have to be a quite conscientious person to follow through on all of the details of it. At which point you probably have no problem with plain scribbles on some loose paper. My wife makes todo lists all the time (like, she's taking to someone and while she's talking she'll pull out some paper and write things down completely unrelated to the conversation, without skipping a beat) but she's very conscientious about actually doing those tasks, so she doesn't have a need for more complicated systems than small piles of papers with things that need to be done.
Whereas I make lists with breakdowns and several dimensions of categories and preferably according to a clearly defined, all-encompassing system, and it needs to work on all devices and include everything from what I need to buy for dinner tonight to my life goals, and then those notes become a job in themselves and I say fuck this and throw them all out and try the same thing again 6 months later. I'd much rather be like my wife.
GTD has a lot of solutions for various types of todo list problems, but then again, you have to be a quite conscientious person to follow through on all of the details of it. At which point you probably have no problem with plain scribbles on some loose paper. My wife makes todo lists all the time (like, she's taking to someone and while she's talking she'll pull out some paper and write things down completely unrelated to the conversation, without skipping a beat) but she's very conscientious about actually doing those tasks, so she doesn't have a need for more complicated systems than small piles of papers with things that need to be done.
Whereas I make lists with breakdowns and several dimensions of categories and preferably according to a clearly defined, all-encompassing system, and it needs to work on all devices and include everything from what I need to buy for dinner tonight to my life goals, and then those notes become a job in themselves and I say fuck this and throw them all out and try the same thing again 6 months later. I'd much rather be like my wife.
Yeah I'm aware of contexts, but I was thinking more of things like deferring until certain dates and also having task sequencing (so for example if I defer the first task in a sequence, it won't show me the next tasks, since they're not available).
> GTD has a lot of solutions for various types of todo list problems, but then again, you have to be a quite conscientious person to follow through on all of the details of it. At which point you probably have no problem with plain scribbles on some loose paper.
I kinda disagree with that. Like I agree that you need to be studious, but not to the level of not needing the organization. "Being able to orgainze a list of tasks" and "being able to hold a list of tasks in your head" or "being able to work off the list of tasks without it being organized" are different things on different axes.
I would also much rather be like you wife, but absent that I'll at least do a thing that I know is better than nothing. Sometimes the results get thrown out but nothing is zero effort.
> GTD has a lot of solutions for various types of todo list problems, but then again, you have to be a quite conscientious person to follow through on all of the details of it. At which point you probably have no problem with plain scribbles on some loose paper.
I kinda disagree with that. Like I agree that you need to be studious, but not to the level of not needing the organization. "Being able to orgainze a list of tasks" and "being able to hold a list of tasks in your head" or "being able to work off the list of tasks without it being organized" are different things on different axes.
I would also much rather be like you wife, but absent that I'll at least do a thing that I know is better than nothing. Sometimes the results get thrown out but nothing is zero effort.
I was thinking recently that it’s such a terrible idea to put todos in a list. A todo tends to be something that gives you a tiny bit of worry: guilt that you should have finished it already, stress that you might not be able to, etc.
By putting a dozen todos together in a list, your level of worry about that list as a whole is going to rise to the most worrisome todo. It’s poisoning the well. Now you don’t want to look at the todo list at all, because it becomes a source of anxiety, even if most of the items on the list are trivial or even enjoyable.
By putting a dozen todos together in a list, your level of worry about that list as a whole is going to rise to the most worrisome todo. It’s poisoning the well. Now you don’t want to look at the todo list at all, because it becomes a source of anxiety, even if most of the items on the list are trivial or even enjoyable.
It can work both ways. You can make the list something you don't mind, even enjoy, looking at, because there's probably going to be something that you can accomplish on it. And you can avoid stressing about the worst issue because it's on the list and you'll get to it eventually.
(I put off suing my old landlord for about a year this way. On the one hand, I probably should've done it sooner; on the other hand, I might well have spent months just stressing about that, whereas instead I channelled that avoidance into dealing with a bunch of other tasks)
(I put off suing my old landlord for about a year this way. On the one hand, I probably should've done it sooner; on the other hand, I might well have spent months just stressing about that, whereas instead I channelled that avoidance into dealing with a bunch of other tasks)
The way I see it, putting the todo in a list gets it out of my head - I don't have a need to keep remembering it, so I don't worry about it as much - I have confidence I won't forget to to it, because it's on the list.
That is the essence of GTD - your head is for doing, not for storing, so get it out of yer head and into a "trusted system".
The problem isn't with the app, it's with us. We keep adding things we "should get to at some point". Well, I've got news for you, you're not going to magically be a person that reads Russian literature in the future, you're going to be you, and you hate Russian literature even though it's "good".
TODO lists are aspirational, not pragmatic. We make them for someone else, the person we want to be. Unfortunately, we'll never be that person.
I had an idea of a TODO list app where things "expired" into a permanent section of the app, to remind you of all the aspirational tasks you never got around to. Unfortunately I never got around to making it.
TODO lists are aspirational, not pragmatic. We make them for someone else, the person we want to be. Unfortunately, we'll never be that person.
I had an idea of a TODO list app where things "expired" into a permanent section of the app, to remind you of all the aspirational tasks you never got around to. Unfortunately I never got around to making it.
Speak for yourself. I actually do need to schedule a dentist appointment once a year, and having software deal with that for me is nice.
Some people actually organize their day-to-day "stuff that they need to do" through these lists.
Some people actually organize their day-to-day "stuff that they need to do" through these lists.
Yeah I think what you describe basically leads to the "long list" issue of the blog post.
For that reason I really wanted something that uses a calendar layout, but still gives you the reward of checking tasks.
I didn't find anything so made it myself and have been using it for 2 years. As it worked for me I recently worked on making it available to others.. Not sure it is ready for prime time yet (will implement localization for week day names after my vacation), but it works and can be used: https://thisweek.rocks.
(Feel free to drop me some feedback here or https://twitter.com/thisweekrocks).
I didn't find anything so made it myself and have been using it for 2 years. As it worked for me I recently worked on making it available to others.. Not sure it is ready for prime time yet (will implement localization for week day names after my vacation), but it works and can be used: https://thisweek.rocks.
(Feel free to drop me some feedback here or https://twitter.com/thisweekrocks).
There's a difference between aspirational to-do lists and an evergreen punch list. Things only get onto my to-do list in one of two ways: Me promising someone I'd do them, or me realising there was some nasty consequence to not doing them.
I like the use-by date on to-do items though. You should make a note of that somewhere. ;)
I like the use-by date on to-do items though. You should make a note of that somewhere. ;)
> We keep adding things we "should get to at some point"
Brilliant. Like the article says, I stopped using the TODO app when I had dozens of tasks in my list and I used to see that backlog every day, made me even more depressed.
Brilliant. Like the article says, I stopped using the TODO app when I had dozens of tasks in my list and I used to see that backlog every day, made me even more depressed.
I’d argue it’s not that easy.
Task accomplishable doesn’t say nothing about our energy levels which is somewhat of a buzzword but relevant in the context of task lists.
For example I could have “Call mechanic to set up service” but the person answering the call can be an ass through the phone so it’s never pleasant chat. Or you might be introvert and that would require mental gymnastics or there might be a lunch break at specific time or you could get rerouted to some other time.
Hundreds of little factors comes in and sometime inputting all of them into system (I tried!) requires more effort than just getting stuff out.
Task accomplishable doesn’t say nothing about our energy levels which is somewhat of a buzzword but relevant in the context of task lists.
For example I could have “Call mechanic to set up service” but the person answering the call can be an ass through the phone so it’s never pleasant chat. Or you might be introvert and that would require mental gymnastics or there might be a lunch break at specific time or you could get rerouted to some other time.
Hundreds of little factors comes in and sometime inputting all of them into system (I tried!) requires more effort than just getting stuff out.
Most apps do get this wrong. I use Taskwarrior and its ability to tag tasks, combined with the ability to schedule them for a future date and not show them until that date, is essential. I used to use Orgmode for the same reason. I use the tags mostly like GTD contexts: if something can wait until a routine meeting with a particular person, I tag it “discuss” and with the person’s name, and more importantly I routinely check these lists when meeting with people.
This can be done with no app at all though, which is what 43 folders is all about. David Allen says often in his book that the exact app or notebook you use doesn’t matter as long as it works for you.
This can be done with no app at all though, which is what 43 folders is all about. David Allen says often in his book that the exact app or notebook you use doesn’t matter as long as it works for you.
We all have different needs due to having different personalities. I need to be careful that I don’t get into a “checking things off my list” mode, as sometimes I’m feverishly doing trivial things on that list to keep myself feeling busy and distracted from what are one or two important but difficult things to work on.
So one heuristic I do is is try to start my day setting my “intentions” — identifying a handful of things on the list I would be pleased to have finished by days end even if absolutely nothing else on the list is touched.
So one heuristic I do is is try to start my day setting my “intentions” — identifying a handful of things on the list I would be pleased to have finished by days end even if absolutely nothing else on the list is touched.
> People drag on GTD but David Allen
I’ve not yet found a decent alternative. I think a better book could be written on it though. I think the system could be explained in fewer words making it accessible to more people. David’s book is a good read but you probably have to be very serious about fixing this part of your life to put in the effort required to understand and implement it.
I’ve not yet found a decent alternative. I think a better book could be written on it though. I think the system could be explained in fewer words making it accessible to more people. David’s book is a good read but you probably have to be very serious about fixing this part of your life to put in the effort required to understand and implement it.
My take on the book was it could’ve been ~20 pages, but had to be padded out to full book length. A lot of that in the self help category.
I don’t remember that book having many fluffy parables. A lot of it was the kind of implementation detail he would talk through in person with a coaching client. I would think most people looking for that kind of help would rather just use the time it takes to read a full book to help them think through their personal situation.
I would strongly disagree. The Book teaches you not only a system of organisation but also how to think about tasks and organisation in general. The system can be broken down into 20 pages. The general thinking around it cannot easily be condensed as much. It has helped me a lot beyond GTD because the same principles can be applied in other contexts such as agile dev work or organising a company.
I’m feeling pretty relaxed and focused with https://timestripe.com Don’t think that this is the perfect app. I guess it’s different for everybody but I like time horizons feature which I didn’t see anywhere else.
> In fact the advanced solution technology lies in the hands of productivity enemies: social media apps and games. Instagram, TikTok and Candy Crush have figured all this out. They know how to make you do something with very little willpower. They know how to present information in a way that’s not overwhelming. They give you rewards for doing things. Hints, nudges, suggestions.
It's true that TODO apps have a lot of bad aspects, but that's no reason to give up and hand yourself over to the exploitative dystopia of global industrial emotional manipulation. That's like hoping to go to hell after you die because you heard the devil makes the trains run on time.
Personally, I think a big part of the appeal TODO apps is the rush of optimism you get from adopting a new system. That's the part that gets people excited, all the marketing is build to whip it up, and it actually makes a positive difference in people's lives, temporarily. Believing you're going to live differently and get more shit down will, in fact, help you get more shit done. But I think we would be better off looking past that when we evaluate productivity apps. You have to be honest and ask yourself, if I am the driving force, if the motivation and belief are coming from my baseline instead of from how I feel pumped up on product marketing, then how useful will the app be? Because that's what you'll get after the first week.
Want regular artificial boosts to your belief in yourself and your optimism about your life? Don't shop for TODO apps. Hop cults, or hire a motivational life coach or something. Do yourself the favor of enjoying some continuity in your productivity tools.
It's true that TODO apps have a lot of bad aspects, but that's no reason to give up and hand yourself over to the exploitative dystopia of global industrial emotional manipulation. That's like hoping to go to hell after you die because you heard the devil makes the trains run on time.
Personally, I think a big part of the appeal TODO apps is the rush of optimism you get from adopting a new system. That's the part that gets people excited, all the marketing is build to whip it up, and it actually makes a positive difference in people's lives, temporarily. Believing you're going to live differently and get more shit down will, in fact, help you get more shit done. But I think we would be better off looking past that when we evaluate productivity apps. You have to be honest and ask yourself, if I am the driving force, if the motivation and belief are coming from my baseline instead of from how I feel pumped up on product marketing, then how useful will the app be? Because that's what you'll get after the first week.
Want regular artificial boosts to your belief in yourself and your optimism about your life? Don't shop for TODO apps. Hop cults, or hire a motivational life coach or something. Do yourself the favor of enjoying some continuity in your productivity tools.
Todo list helps you to do things in the same way a shopping list helps you shop. It’s just a tool to facilitate memory and organization.
Motivation, tenacity, and perspective are not really within the scope of todo lists.
Motivation, tenacity, and perspective are not really within the scope of todo lists.
> Up until the last week I thought the problem was in myself (you probably think so too). After all, David Allen seems to have figured this shit out.
It's worth pointing out that David Allen is very outspoken on his position that you should NOT use a todo list. He writes it out clearly in his book. This is probably the most common misconception about GTD. I've even heard people say they gave up on GTD because todo lists don't work for them. Okay...
I use a task manager but I don't have a todo list. The standard usage of a todo list, where you dump any task that may or may not be worth doing at some point, is at best a distraction from real project management. To get things done, you have to decide on the one or few things you should be working on at a point in time. A todo list doesn't help with that.
It's worth pointing out that David Allen is very outspoken on his position that you should NOT use a todo list. He writes it out clearly in his book. This is probably the most common misconception about GTD. I've even heard people say they gave up on GTD because todo lists don't work for them. Okay...
I use a task manager but I don't have a todo list. The standard usage of a todo list, where you dump any task that may or may not be worth doing at some point, is at best a distraction from real project management. To get things done, you have to decide on the one or few things you should be working on at a point in time. A todo list doesn't help with that.
> To get things done, you have to decide on the one or few things you should be working on at a point in time. A todo list doesn't help with that.
If you have 100 things to do, certainly a list helps you at least not forget most of them, before you even start work.
I don't know what David Allen recommends, but if everyone is left with the impression he recommends TODO lists and he doesn't, it might be because the alternative is hazy and vaporous and poorly defined.
I scanned your answer for that alternative and it wasn't there, either.
Consider grocery shopping. You have 20 products to buy. Does a shopping list help? Uhm, heck yes. Otherwise you'd need to go to the store 10 times and not one time.
Well shopping lists, are just a TODO list in the context of a grocery store.
Issue reports on GitHub and other bugtracking systems are TODO lists in the context of software development.
Medical checklists enumerate all required steps in carrying out procedures. That's a TODO list in the context of medical practice.
I can go on forever. So, clearly, the statement "TODO lists don't work" is false. It contradicts reality. And the supposed alternative is apparently unmentionable. Odd.
Maybe we should clarify what is meant by "it works" or "doesn't work", because in general it only means "it's effective for certain uses" and it is effective for certain uses. No, a TODO list won't necessarily motivate you, unless your lack of motivation is specifically due to confusion what you're supposed to do. But I'm very suspicious that any similar "mechanical" alternative would work either.
Gamification works because it draws you into its own world. Posting comments, like mine and most of them, is low effort. Playing a game with colorful characters doing cute things is low effort. Checking for new tweets is low effort. All those are low effort things. This is why it's easy to be motivated by a system that gamifies those low effort actions.
I really doubt any game would motivate you to do an actual 9 to 5 job for years.
If you have 100 things to do, certainly a list helps you at least not forget most of them, before you even start work.
I don't know what David Allen recommends, but if everyone is left with the impression he recommends TODO lists and he doesn't, it might be because the alternative is hazy and vaporous and poorly defined.
I scanned your answer for that alternative and it wasn't there, either.
Consider grocery shopping. You have 20 products to buy. Does a shopping list help? Uhm, heck yes. Otherwise you'd need to go to the store 10 times and not one time.
Well shopping lists, are just a TODO list in the context of a grocery store.
Issue reports on GitHub and other bugtracking systems are TODO lists in the context of software development.
Medical checklists enumerate all required steps in carrying out procedures. That's a TODO list in the context of medical practice.
I can go on forever. So, clearly, the statement "TODO lists don't work" is false. It contradicts reality. And the supposed alternative is apparently unmentionable. Odd.
Maybe we should clarify what is meant by "it works" or "doesn't work", because in general it only means "it's effective for certain uses" and it is effective for certain uses. No, a TODO list won't necessarily motivate you, unless your lack of motivation is specifically due to confusion what you're supposed to do. But I'm very suspicious that any similar "mechanical" alternative would work either.
Gamification works because it draws you into its own world. Posting comments, like mine and most of them, is low effort. Playing a game with colorful characters doing cute things is low effort. Checking for new tweets is low effort. All those are low effort things. This is why it's easy to be motivated by a system that gamifies those low effort actions.
I really doubt any game would motivate you to do an actual 9 to 5 job for years.
> I don't know what David Allen recommends, but if everyone is left with the impression he recommends TODO lists and he doesn't, it might be because the alternative is hazy and vaporous and poorly defined.
He actually defines a specific framework in detail. But most people can't be bothered to read the book.
> Consider grocery shopping. You have 20 products to buy. Does a shopping list help? Uhm, heck yes. Otherwise you'd need to go to the store 10 times and not one time.
A shopping list works because it very much isn't a TODO list - it's a well-scoped list of things that you are going to do in a particular place at a particular time. If you started dumping random non-shopping tasks on your shopping list, it would be a lot less effective.
He actually defines a specific framework in detail. But most people can't be bothered to read the book.
> Consider grocery shopping. You have 20 products to buy. Does a shopping list help? Uhm, heck yes. Otherwise you'd need to go to the store 10 times and not one time.
A shopping list works because it very much isn't a TODO list - it's a well-scoped list of things that you are going to do in a particular place at a particular time. If you started dumping random non-shopping tasks on your shopping list, it would be a lot less effective.
> I don't know what David Allen recommends, but if everyone is left with the impression he recommends TODO lists and he doesn't, it might be because the alternative is hazy and vaporous and poorly defined.
Maybe a lot of people just read the short blog posts on the internet for how to setup a tool to implement his system. A lot of the ones I’ve seen (with the notable exception of one I found showing how to implement it in Org-mode) get the methodology completely wrong. So maybe it’s just the bad examples are copied?
People should just buy and read his book. It was updated a few years ago for the modern world (but I guess even that edition is now probably dated). Also there’s even a workbook available too to help drill it in for people that prefer that way of examples.
Maybe a lot of people just read the short blog posts on the internet for how to setup a tool to implement his system. A lot of the ones I’ve seen (with the notable exception of one I found showing how to implement it in Org-mode) get the methodology completely wrong. So maybe it’s just the bad examples are copied?
People should just buy and read his book. It was updated a few years ago for the modern world (but I guess even that edition is now probably dated). Also there’s even a workbook available too to help drill it in for people that prefer that way of examples.
You're talking about lists in general. His system is built on lists. The TODO list, as he's using the term, means a single list where you dump all the tasks you need to do or might want to do. Without further thought, you end up with a long list of items, no guidance about what you should be doing, and stress because there are incomplete items on your list. If you're not going beyond that, the TODO list is a terrible idea.
There's nothing about TODO lists that says you have one list per person. And "TODO lists don't work, unless you have many of them" is counterintuitive and misleading at best.
You should just read the book instead of guessing at the ideas in it.
He doesn’t advocate a todo list but he does advocate (at least for starting off) 10 lists (projects, agendas, calls, errands, home, office, waiting for, anywhere etc). His process basically allows you to know what you need to do at any point (i.e. it’s clear what needs to be done), and the context sorting allows you to quickly rattle through a bunch of ‘next actions’ based on your context and without having to work out the thing that needs doing. Now these next actions may seem like todos but given that teh project list always points to a next action (or is complete) and given that it is present on a context-based list means it’s already been through some processing to make it do-able. Todos lack this and is why quite often they don’t get done. You put them off as it’s not clear what the next action to progress it even is.
Also it’s not so much a system for getting things done, than it is a system for clearing the mind so that when you ARE able to do some work, you are able to just do it. Mind like water.
Also it’s not so much a system for getting things done, than it is a system for clearing the mind so that when you ARE able to do some work, you are able to just do it. Mind like water.
Todo apps are unfinished ticket management tools. What the author sees in Trello is exactly that: a tool aimed at actually managing tasks, not merely trying to keep track of them.
Also
> In fact the advanced solution technology lies in the hands of productivity enemies: social media apps and games.
Please let’s not. Harvesting dark patterns also has mental side effects that we are well aware of now (either you deplete your good will or you keep going on fueled by negative emotions)
Also
> In fact the advanced solution technology lies in the hands of productivity enemies: social media apps and games.
Please let’s not. Harvesting dark patterns also has mental side effects that we are well aware of now (either you deplete your good will or you keep going on fueled by negative emotions)
For personal (non-work), I've been using a modified version of todo.txt (http://todotxt.org/) text-file format successfully for 2+ years, and found my setup doesn't have some of the problems the article raises (though other problems aren't problems for me).
My tweaks to todo.txt, and some helpful Emacs Lisp, is at: https://www.neilvandyke.org/todotxt/
For work project management, I'm recently using GitLab Issues and Board, with my own labels for urgency and Kanban state. (This isn't quite enough for large project planning, for which I usually use Gantt heavily. But hopefully the next time I need that, there'll be an easy way to link the work breakdown structure and dependencies to all the GitLab-based data capture and workflow the team is doing.)
My tweaks to todo.txt, and some helpful Emacs Lisp, is at: https://www.neilvandyke.org/todotxt/
For work project management, I'm recently using GitLab Issues and Board, with my own labels for urgency and Kanban state. (This isn't quite enough for large project planning, for which I usually use Gantt heavily. But hopefully the next time I need that, there'll be an easy way to link the work breakdown structure and dependencies to all the GitLab-based data capture and workflow the team is doing.)
Just read your article, a few comments on how I use todotxt differently:
* It seems you use your list for scheduling as well. I prefer to just use a calendar (calcurse) for this kind of things, I only use dates in my TODO list to know when the item was created, so that I can reevaluate it if I see it stays there for too long (and you can have a cronjob for that).
* I use different lists for inbox and waiting. Depending on how you display your tasks (you can just avoid showing the @waiting ones), that could be the same result. I prefer to have smaller lists (i.e. getting an empty main list means I'm really done and I can see what I wanna do next).
* I tend to use priorities instead of your @then, but that's also not nice. Or I just don't append it to the list: I can do that once I have completed the current task, and maybe I'll have to revisit. If it's something complex enough, it should be documented elsewhere anyway.
* People are also contexts to me, I just use a prefix, e.g. @p_neilv.
* It seems you use your list for scheduling as well. I prefer to just use a calendar (calcurse) for this kind of things, I only use dates in my TODO list to know when the item was created, so that I can reevaluate it if I see it stays there for too long (and you can have a cronjob for that).
* I use different lists for inbox and waiting. Depending on how you display your tasks (you can just avoid showing the @waiting ones), that could be the same result. I prefer to have smaller lists (i.e. getting an empty main list means I'm really done and I can see what I wanna do next).
* I tend to use priorities instead of your @then, but that's also not nice. Or I just don't append it to the list: I can do that once I have completed the current task, and maybe I'll have to revisit. If it's something complex enough, it should be documented elsewhere anyway.
* People are also contexts to me, I just use a prefix, e.g. @p_neilv.
>3. Sense of accomplishment is important but rare in the digital world. When you mark a task as done in your TODO app, it just hides it. That’s it, no reward, no sense of accomplishment (unless you make your own). I think that’s why some people like Trello or pen-and-paper TODO list: when you get something done, you can see a card moved or a text crossed out. An artifact that proves there was a task here, and now it’s done. Now you are one step closer to your goal.
This one is so good and true.
This one is so good and true.
I find myself using Google docs for todo lists for this reason. I can strikethrough items as I complete them and behold the ever growing list of struck through items.
I love looking at the Done column of my Trello board and then (yes I’m that terrible person) showing it off to people.
[from TFA, quoted above]
"When you mark a task as done in your TODO app, it just hides it."
Those are some big assumptions and sweeping generalizations apparently made by the author; for example, my system leverages Roam Research. In Roam, a key bit of UX is to type cmd+enter to prefix any block element (Roam's atomic unit, renderered as an HTML `<li>` list item) with a TODO checkbox, or to toggle its presence and state (TODO|DONE|nil). "DONE" items persist in the UI wherever you created them. I take it further than leaving signs of my progress around -- I tag the more significant ones with `#FTW` ("for the win") to ensure I give myself credit and opportunity to celebrate. When I do my weekly review / planning sessions, the "DONE" items, and the wins, play a role.
Those are some big assumptions and sweeping generalizations apparently made by the author; for example, my system leverages Roam Research. In Roam, a key bit of UX is to type cmd+enter to prefix any block element (Roam's atomic unit, renderered as an HTML `<li>` list item) with a TODO checkbox, or to toggle its presence and state (TODO|DONE|nil). "DONE" items persist in the UI wherever you created them. I take it further than leaving signs of my progress around -- I tag the more significant ones with `#FTW` ("for the win") to ensure I give myself credit and opportunity to celebrate. When I do my weekly review / planning sessions, the "DONE" items, and the wins, play a role.
From point (1) in the post:
> The amount of things one can customize is really large, but making all this decisions has a cost.
> The amount of things one can customize is really large, but making all this decisions has a cost.
I don't see how that's relevant; my comment was about the OP's assertion that completed TODOs disappear from view. In Roam, when toggling an item from TODO->DONE, the "DONE" items persist in the UI wherever you created them. (No extra decisions involved.)
Same holds true for Obsidian, too -- marking checklist items done styles them with strikethrough, but they remain visible.
This is why I keep a done list, not a todo list! I even made a dedicated app to do so; check it out: https://donel.ist
Asana used (c2013) to have a unicorn that would fly by after N tasks marked done - didn't work on Linux, only saw it on Mac.
One of the features I love about the Things app: it keeps the checked todo item until the next day.
I thought Todo apps were just meant to demo/test MVC frameworks
These types of articles with a list of problems and no solutions are always a bore to read. Many of them don't really appear to be a problem with lists at all.
"I bought this hammer the other day. Every time I hammer a nail in, the hammer doesn't vibrate and play a tune to give me a sense of accomplishment. What gives?"
Has anyone considered that if you're looking to external means to feel a sense of accomplishment, you're relying on meaningless short-term gratification?
"I bought this hammer the other day. Every time I hammer a nail in, the hammer doesn't vibrate and play a tune to give me a sense of accomplishment. What gives?"
Has anyone considered that if you're looking to external means to feel a sense of accomplishment, you're relying on meaningless short-term gratification?
As I was reading it I was thinking: wow this is an amazing pitch for a todo app that will sell one copy to a very happy customer
I've taken to relying on just my memory and then use a calendar to sketch out into blocks what I will work on for the day (just mark them as free so if someone has something important they can see those slots as available). I do this at the end of each day, ready for the next day. These then go alongside scheduled events (meetings / appointments etc). I settled on this after messing around with todo apps, todo.txt, spreadsheets, pens and paper, org mode, post it notes, etc etc.
If you just trust in your own mind, it will manage priority for you and get better the more you trust it. You rarely forget important things (they have an immediate need and make it known). Small stuff just mentally shuffles themselves to the back of the mind, if a few fall off the table, it's not going to cause any significant impact.
Doing this removes all the guilt of having big lists that need daily attention (where you feel you need a todo list to manage your todo list). This way I know I am tackling the important things, which are also what make me feel better as I know I have made an impact on my day. I am not going to start / end the day with a list of everything I have not done yet.
This feels like a much more human experience to me. As they say 'don't sweat the small stuff'
If you just trust in your own mind, it will manage priority for you and get better the more you trust it. You rarely forget important things (they have an immediate need and make it known). Small stuff just mentally shuffles themselves to the back of the mind, if a few fall off the table, it's not going to cause any significant impact.
Doing this removes all the guilt of having big lists that need daily attention (where you feel you need a todo list to manage your todo list). This way I know I am tackling the important things, which are also what make me feel better as I know I have made an impact on my day. I am not going to start / end the day with a list of everything I have not done yet.
This feels like a much more human experience to me. As they say 'don't sweat the small stuff'
> If you just trust in your own mind, it will manage priority for you and get better the more you trust it. You rarely forget important things (they have an immediate need and make it known). Small stuff just mentally shuffles themselves to the back of the mind, if a few fall off the table, it's not going to cause any significant impact.
I find the small stuff a constant drag on my attention, like a headache, and if I have some hugely important thing then that's even worse - I can't think about anything else. Putting stuff in a list and trusting myself to handle the list lets me focus on what I'm currently doing without worrying about forgetting something that I can't currently do anything about. Using technology to make our lives easier is also a very human experience :).
But I don't feel guilt from my lists - I separate the stuff I need to do from the stuff I might want to do one day, and I recognise that most of the latter will never get done and prune things off it pretty aggressively.
I find the small stuff a constant drag on my attention, like a headache, and if I have some hugely important thing then that's even worse - I can't think about anything else. Putting stuff in a list and trusting myself to handle the list lets me focus on what I'm currently doing without worrying about forgetting something that I can't currently do anything about. Using technology to make our lives easier is also a very human experience :).
But I don't feel guilt from my lists - I separate the stuff I need to do from the stuff I might want to do one day, and I recognise that most of the latter will never get done and prune things off it pretty aggressively.
Have a similar approach. I finally gave up using these type of apps (or lists in general) when top of my list of TODOs became “Review all these TODOs”. Also the fact that most of the apps required I spend more time playing with the UI than pen and paper annoyed me deeply.
Since then I just keep a list of 3-5 topics in my head that are important to me at some level and that’s it. It's a list of "these are the things I actually care about".
The underlying realization is: you can't get everything done. We're probably deluded by that brief period in our lives - as a student or early in our careers- where it was actually possible to get everything done, because we were being given so little responsibility to manage. The moment you become in some way "successful", leading a team, being a parent or whatever, your TODOs will far outweigh the time you have available to get them all done. Plus anyone working in startups / digital will always work in a space where the amount of useful work that could be done vastly exceeds the available time to do them.
The answer to me is we need software that makes us "smarter" in managing what's most important - our time. One example of this to me was Google Inbox, which for a brief year or two actually made me feel like I was managing my email in a clever way, enabling me to "scale up" and not waste time on the tool. And sadly Google killed it while pretending they'd ported the "best features" to GMail...
And unfortunately there's a big problem I see in software in general. There doesn't seem to be enough money in building things that make people "smarter", truly more efficient. The money seems to be in making things addictive... so I'll stick to the list in my head.
Since then I just keep a list of 3-5 topics in my head that are important to me at some level and that’s it. It's a list of "these are the things I actually care about".
The underlying realization is: you can't get everything done. We're probably deluded by that brief period in our lives - as a student or early in our careers- where it was actually possible to get everything done, because we were being given so little responsibility to manage. The moment you become in some way "successful", leading a team, being a parent or whatever, your TODOs will far outweigh the time you have available to get them all done. Plus anyone working in startups / digital will always work in a space where the amount of useful work that could be done vastly exceeds the available time to do them.
The answer to me is we need software that makes us "smarter" in managing what's most important - our time. One example of this to me was Google Inbox, which for a brief year or two actually made me feel like I was managing my email in a clever way, enabling me to "scale up" and not waste time on the tool. And sadly Google killed it while pretending they'd ported the "best features" to GMail...
And unfortunately there's a big problem I see in software in general. There doesn't seem to be enough money in building things that make people "smarter", truly more efficient. The money seems to be in making things addictive... so I'll stick to the list in my head.
Regarding Google Inbox, I felt exactly the same way.
The original designer of inbox actually released a chrome extension a couple of years ago which brings much of the experience back.
It's not a perfect clone, but it helps a lot. https://simpl.fyi/
The original designer of inbox actually released a chrome extension a couple of years ago which brings much of the experience back.
It's not a perfect clone, but it helps a lot. https://simpl.fyi/
I'm a huge fan of Marvin [1].
It's an incredibly customizable app that lets you create a ToDo app that works for you.
Unfortunately the web page doesn't make it clear how customizable it is, and how many unique features it has, but this may give you an idea [2].
[1] https://amazingmarvin.com/
[2] https://imgur.com/a/kPzzdko
It's an incredibly customizable app that lets you create a ToDo app that works for you.
Unfortunately the web page doesn't make it clear how customizable it is, and how many unique features it has, but this may give you an idea [2].
[1] https://amazingmarvin.com/
[2] https://imgur.com/a/kPzzdko
Seconded. Marvin is an incredible app which can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, and it has a very calm / friendly feel to it. People I've recommended it to have been using it for years now.
They've built the app based on productivity / procrastination science and have a lot of "strategies"[0] to help you deal with different issues you might be facing like "analysis paralysis", "procrastination", "prioritization", "overwhelm", "time management", etc.
Their team is very helpful and responsive and help you figure out your best workflow. It is a breath of fresh air really. If this sounds like an ad, it's because it really is that good.
If the OP resonates with you, you really should give Marvin a shot.
[0] https://help.amazingmarvin.com/en/collections/1139197-strate...
They've built the app based on productivity / procrastination science and have a lot of "strategies"[0] to help you deal with different issues you might be facing like "analysis paralysis", "procrastination", "prioritization", "overwhelm", "time management", etc.
Their team is very helpful and responsive and help you figure out your best workflow. It is a breath of fresh air really. If this sounds like an ad, it's because it really is that good.
If the OP resonates with you, you really should give Marvin a shot.
[0] https://help.amazingmarvin.com/en/collections/1139197-strate...
I've been using gtd + trello for over a year now in on off basis, and for me I found the following benefits
- closed loops for stuff that would otherwise occupy my thoughts while programming
- understanding and aplication of what makes me either not start or think about something (project) constantly
- ability to drop and return to it and just continue
- differentiation between what is a must do and nice to do
- separating emotional context for a protocol one ( usefull for things that upset me but must be dealt with)
Bad things
- overusing the system as it is very effective and placing way of the mark projects that you wish to do and that drag on to irrelevance, especially the inbox filled with thoughts rather than something useful.
- it requires at least weekly maintenance, especially when the structure is new to the user
- lists can get convoluted , amended by understanding that you can and should add remove entire lists or even make lists context based.
Bad parts can be overcame but it requires a deeper understanding of gtd and knowing that your gtd flow is ment to be upgraded, reworked and much less structural and rigid in some places. I am currently at my v2 for gtd and it is much easier to maintain while providing me with pretty much same benefits, there is going to be v3.
Overall it helped me immensely to clear my ram when working and for that at least it is worth it
- closed loops for stuff that would otherwise occupy my thoughts while programming
- understanding and aplication of what makes me either not start or think about something (project) constantly
- ability to drop and return to it and just continue
- differentiation between what is a must do and nice to do
- separating emotional context for a protocol one ( usefull for things that upset me but must be dealt with)
Bad things
- overusing the system as it is very effective and placing way of the mark projects that you wish to do and that drag on to irrelevance, especially the inbox filled with thoughts rather than something useful.
- it requires at least weekly maintenance, especially when the structure is new to the user
- lists can get convoluted , amended by understanding that you can and should add remove entire lists or even make lists context based.
Bad parts can be overcame but it requires a deeper understanding of gtd and knowing that your gtd flow is ment to be upgraded, reworked and much less structural and rigid in some places. I am currently at my v2 for gtd and it is much easier to maintain while providing me with pretty much same benefits, there is going to be v3.
Overall it helped me immensely to clear my ram when working and for that at least it is worth it
My todo app is a checklist in a markdown file. Every morning, I go through the file, pick 3-5 priorities for the day and stick them at the top of the list. I used to do this on paper. I don't like reoccurring tasks because if I don't manually create my priorities every day, I won't do things. If I need to be reminded to do something on a particular day (schedule my annual checkup, etc) I add an all day calendar event.
I do the same. Text editor with some tasks. I also used to do it on paper but I like being able to reshuffle the day when something inevitably comes up. In a text editor its really easy to manipulate multiple items at the same time. So much better than any app I’ve ever seen where I drag and drop and click on various plus signs and whatnot. I just alt tab my editor and write it down in a few seconds
I still do it on paper for non-recurring tasks. Big list with all the things I need to do for work. Small dated list with things I need to do today. Each morning I look at the big list, extract what I want to do that day, and write a new small list on a fresh page. When things come up during the day, they go on the small list if they're urgent and the big list if they're not. At the end of the day I cross out tasks on the big list if they're done (and add undone urgent tasks to the next day's small list).
For recurring tasks and meetings I use a calendar.
For recurring tasks and meetings I use a calendar.
1. On your phone, you can use one app for recurring things that get done quickly (I use Loop Habit Tracker), and another app for more bigger/long-term/once-off tasks that might lapse (I use Tasks.org and it's pretty friendly with postponing - it gives you a few options and you select one).
2. You can get Loop Habit Tracker to automatically put the things you do on time at the top so it's easy to get started. You can archive things you don't want to focus on, to reduce the size of the list.
3. I feel good when the list gets shorter.
4. If you have the easy tasks at the top, it's easy to get started.
5. Tasks.org lets you color things by priority. I never bother because I keep my list short and hide things until a week/day before they're due.
6. Tasks.org can do subtasks. I think doing such granular stuff in an app is limited and I prefer to just scribble some notes on paper, but I understand more could be done.
7. Tasks.org lets you view categories.
I've never found an app that does everything I want, so I think you're right in that a lot more could be done, but I've no interest in writing Java or messing about with virtual machines etc. so I'm quite happy with the options I've got on my phone. Overall, I use two apps, paper and my own note taking system on my desktop (for quickly taking notes that come back later, which I can postpone, search through etc.)
Some people are more conscientious, and they probably don't need many reminders. I'm not so conscientious, and my process helps me keep going, and I would rather make it all as robotic as possible so I don't have to deliberate.
2. You can get Loop Habit Tracker to automatically put the things you do on time at the top so it's easy to get started. You can archive things you don't want to focus on, to reduce the size of the list.
3. I feel good when the list gets shorter.
4. If you have the easy tasks at the top, it's easy to get started.
5. Tasks.org lets you color things by priority. I never bother because I keep my list short and hide things until a week/day before they're due.
6. Tasks.org can do subtasks. I think doing such granular stuff in an app is limited and I prefer to just scribble some notes on paper, but I understand more could be done.
7. Tasks.org lets you view categories.
I've never found an app that does everything I want, so I think you're right in that a lot more could be done, but I've no interest in writing Java or messing about with virtual machines etc. so I'm quite happy with the options I've got on my phone. Overall, I use two apps, paper and my own note taking system on my desktop (for quickly taking notes that come back later, which I can postpone, search through etc.)
Some people are more conscientious, and they probably don't need many reminders. I'm not so conscientious, and my process helps me keep going, and I would rather make it all as robotic as possible so I don't have to deliberate.
Are there potential solutions to the problems mentioned or is building a great todo list app not possible?
I’m leaning towards it’s impossible, but would like to hear what others think.
I’m leaning towards it’s impossible, but would like to hear what others think.
I think there are solutions, but whether or not they are the same for a large enough market is hard to tell.
I use a leaky bucket metaphor in my todo lists... if a given task sits on a list for too long, then it should more or less fall off. It wasn't as important as you thought. But this is anathema to how most of these systems work.
I use a leaky bucket metaphor in my todo lists... if a given task sits on a list for too long, then it should more or less fall off. It wasn't as important as you thought. But this is anathema to how most of these systems work.
I tend to use my memory for my todo list, which accomplishes this quite naturally.
The key is to really address your feelings of guilt over the whole process of just forgetting about shit that was never that important to begin with.
Which I think is probably the biggest inherent problem with TODO apps (and Jira backlogs).
The key is to really address your feelings of guilt over the whole process of just forgetting about shit that was never that important to begin with.
Which I think is probably the biggest inherent problem with TODO apps (and Jira backlogs).
Omnifocus basically solves almost all complaints people have with Todo apps. You have to spend time on it, and that's because "Todo lists" are project management, but people don't see it as such.
Some people have "weird requirements" and even those can be gotten right thanks to very good configurable searches and views. The competition is miles behind Omnifocus (I think the fact it started as a local app and not a web app helps, cuz you're not worrying about "heavy queries" or whatnot)
Some people have "weird requirements" and even those can be gotten right thanks to very good configurable searches and views. The competition is miles behind Omnifocus (I think the fact it started as a local app and not a web app helps, cuz you're not worrying about "heavy queries" or whatnot)
Different activities and different personalities require different approaches I guess. I for example do not get most of the arguments from the writing. Perhaps because I usually need to deal with few big tasks not millions of small ones. The few important ones are easy to keep in mind, need to manage only the less important externally (and strive to get rid of the marginal ones). Others live differently. I guess the task is impossible due to the diverging needs.
Tbh that is the way to go. Be in a position where you have to tackle a few very important tasks, and outsource the little ones to others.
Yes, this. See also the "Eisenhower Matrix".
Yes. When task entry is a chore, and requires detailed determination of priority (and other fields), it's a deterrent. The Eisenhower Quadrants are a way to toss a new task entry into the right box without pausing for headscratching.
Maybe it's not possible if you try to mash everything together; recurring tasks are not the same as once-off tasks etc. That's why I'm okay with using multiple solutions.
Unfortunately all of the options are bad.
I tried to map out the space of info that I need to track in my engineering job:
1) Tasks from emails 2) Meeting notes with details of people who participated 3) Project related tasks that can have a long format and can be tagged/ delegated 4) Scratchpad for unrefined ideas 5) Detailed documentation for completed technical tasks / ideas 6) FIFO list of high priority small daily tasks
I try to fight the above battle of information organization with a combination of MS Outlook, Onenote, Github boards, MS Todo, physical Sticky notes, a physical notebook and scratchpad, but it is messy.
I occasionally try to find alternatives (notion, bear, trello etc) but no luck so far
I tried to map out the space of info that I need to track in my engineering job:
1) Tasks from emails 2) Meeting notes with details of people who participated 3) Project related tasks that can have a long format and can be tagged/ delegated 4) Scratchpad for unrefined ideas 5) Detailed documentation for completed technical tasks / ideas 6) FIFO list of high priority small daily tasks
I try to fight the above battle of information organization with a combination of MS Outlook, Onenote, Github boards, MS Todo, physical Sticky notes, a physical notebook and scratchpad, but it is messy.
I occasionally try to find alternatives (notion, bear, trello etc) but no luck so far
I'm in a very similar boat. My best solution so far has been to use Onenote and Outlook plus paper, but I'm looking for something better. Maybe org-mode or a personal wiki?
In Outlook I mark emails that I want to respond to/deal with later as "unread" or else apply the "followup" flag depending on how much work responding will take. There are downsides but I have so far been able to keep the scheme manageable (single-digit quantities with the unread/followup tags at any given time).
I use a paper notebook, physical sticky notes, and scraps of paper for general notes depending on how ephemeral their importance is.
I use Onenote for meeting notes and a running to-do list, as well as a rough knowledge base, but it's far from perfect:
In Outlook I mark emails that I want to respond to/deal with later as "unread" or else apply the "followup" flag depending on how much work responding will take. There are downsides but I have so far been able to keep the scheme manageable (single-digit quantities with the unread/followup tags at any given time).
I use a paper notebook, physical sticky notes, and scraps of paper for general notes depending on how ephemeral their importance is.
I use Onenote for meeting notes and a running to-do list, as well as a rough knowledge base, but it's far from perfect:
- You can organize notes but you are sort of locked into the organization scheme that you start with. If you discover some orthogonal knowledge organization/symmetry across topics, there's not a good way to reorganize. For instance, say a certain topic gets discussed in different contexts in different weekly meetings. If you already have note sections with deep histories for Meeting 1 and for Meeting 2, how do you link instances of Topic A across meetings in some useful way?
- For to-do lists, it's easy to start with one list of all your tasks, but as these get complicated with subtasks, you might organize them into different sections, and eventually different pages... but now the to-do list is actually spread across fifteen different note sections, and are you really going to read each one at the start of each day?
I think org-mode with org-roam[0] is what you're looking for.
[0]: https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam
[0]: https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam
I like the personal wiki idea. No clue how it could be integrated with the emails though
For a long time I've had a glimmer of an idea for a todo app that combined automatic carryover (and slow automatic pruning) of items from day to day coupled with a ever expanding set of selectable frontends to engage the user.
Example frontends would be things like "Wheel of Do" where you spin the wheel and it lands on an item, Castle Wolfenstien 2.5D shooter where a todo item is an enemy, a Star Trek style control panel, etc.
Like I said, its a glimmer of an idea but it handles the two things I have problems with in any todo app: an ever expanding backlog and getting bored with the UI.
Please build it someone, I don't have the time. :)
Example frontends would be things like "Wheel of Do" where you spin the wheel and it lands on an item, Castle Wolfenstien 2.5D shooter where a todo item is an enemy, a Star Trek style control panel, etc.
Like I said, its a glimmer of an idea but it handles the two things I have problems with in any todo app: an ever expanding backlog and getting bored with the UI.
Please build it someone, I don't have the time. :)
Try https://amazingmarvin.com/. I don't use it, but I remember they have developed something similar to your ideas.
Desktop wiki like Zim will give you flexibility to experiment with various workflows and task representations. Once I started using Zim, it quickly replaced all TODOs, HOWTOs, bookmarks, contact lists, calendars, diaries/logs, and other memory tools. Since this is desktop wiki, there's no save button. You just jump to relevant wiki page via search and enter free-form text, usually a list item. New workflows and exceptions to existing workflows can be introduced on a whim. No need to wait for new features or adapt to somebody else's workflow like in specialized apps.
I have the same problem and I found recently that I like using a physical notepad, with quite small pages (A5 in europe), so I write down things, which helps to remember them, then I can easily purge them from my memory and think about something else, and I can always go back to the notepad when I'm free to think again about something. The main thing with small pages is that you don't have too many things written on each, so it doesn't overwhelm to look at one, and it feels nice to turn a few pages and see all the things I did strike and are done (or deprecated)
Many years ago I built an iOS app called BetterDo that dealt with some of these issues. It broke long ago after some iOS update, and I let it slip away. But I really miss it.
1. No dates. Instead I had sublists by timeframe: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Weekend, Next Week, Some Day. And it was easy to move an item between sublists. It was easy to move things up and down to indicate next up. Every morning I would scan the Today and Tomorrow items, and move them around to suit my plan for the day.
I don't want or expect my To Do list to stop me from procrastinating. Rather I want it to support healthier procrastination by never letting me totally forget the things I keep putting off.
2. One thing I realized is that weekend task is different than a weekday task. I'm not going to mow my lawn on a weekday. Conversely many tasks require a business to be open and cannot be done on the weekend. On weekday mornings I don't want to be staring at a list of my weekend chores.
3. When you completed an item, it was crossed out but visible until you deleted it. Delicious positive reinforcement.
One important insight is that a To Do list is not to keep track of all the things you need to do. It's to keep track of the annoying things only. You won't forget to do things you look forward to doing.
1. No dates. Instead I had sublists by timeframe: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Weekend, Next Week, Some Day. And it was easy to move an item between sublists. It was easy to move things up and down to indicate next up. Every morning I would scan the Today and Tomorrow items, and move them around to suit my plan for the day.
I don't want or expect my To Do list to stop me from procrastinating. Rather I want it to support healthier procrastination by never letting me totally forget the things I keep putting off.
2. One thing I realized is that weekend task is different than a weekday task. I'm not going to mow my lawn on a weekday. Conversely many tasks require a business to be open and cannot be done on the weekend. On weekday mornings I don't want to be staring at a list of my weekend chores.
3. When you completed an item, it was crossed out but visible until you deleted it. Delicious positive reinforcement.
One important insight is that a To Do list is not to keep track of all the things you need to do. It's to keep track of the annoying things only. You won't forget to do things you look forward to doing.
Food for thought here. I've developed an app for myself that addresses issues 1, 2, 3, and 6 to some extent (ie prevent long todo lists, finishing tasks is rewarding, nudges towards effective behavior).
Now to see if the other issues can be addressed/are in scope for me :)
Have a look at https://can.do if you're interested.
@op would be interested to see your list of 13 'strategies to help me get things done'!
Have a look at https://can.do if you're interested.
@op would be interested to see your list of 13 'strategies to help me get things done'!
This is quite interesting, I've been considering making a todo app to help with ADHD. I've definitely experienced many of the same issues mentioned by the author, and even some apps labelled specifically for ADHD seem to fail on many of these issues.
If it's a chore to add a task, I won't add them. If it's a chore to go through tasks, I won't come back to the app.
It's also a really important point about some tasks being inherently different in scale to others, and the importance of separating them.
I feel like many todo apps focus too much on being a "todo app" rather than actually trying to get you to get things done. All this tagging and categorizing and such are features that take effort and time for me to manage, which in turn help make those apps into huge graveyards of stuff to do, which in turn make me want to not open them ever again.
IMO a todo apps that is blank most of the time is the best. Meaning, you haven't got anything you need to do. Help me keep track of small tasks, and repeating tasks, and let me either complete them or postpone them. If there's something I've postponed too many times, just delete it. It shoudn't become a notes app, it's about getting stuff done.
If it's a chore to add a task, I won't add them. If it's a chore to go through tasks, I won't come back to the app.
It's also a really important point about some tasks being inherently different in scale to others, and the importance of separating them.
I feel like many todo apps focus too much on being a "todo app" rather than actually trying to get you to get things done. All this tagging and categorizing and such are features that take effort and time for me to manage, which in turn help make those apps into huge graveyards of stuff to do, which in turn make me want to not open them ever again.
IMO a todo apps that is blank most of the time is the best. Meaning, you haven't got anything you need to do. Help me keep track of small tasks, and repeating tasks, and let me either complete them or postpone them. If there's something I've postponed too many times, just delete it. It shoudn't become a notes app, it's about getting stuff done.
#1 has been debunked[0], in 2016 of all times. I wonder how many more years we'll have to go before people stop saying willpower is a finite resource.
[0]: https://elemental.medium.com/dont-worry-you-can-t-deplete-yo...
[0]: https://elemental.medium.com/dont-worry-you-can-t-deplete-yo...
From that link you shared:
> But while the early ego-depletion concepts appear to be flawed, experts say that self-control can wax or wane for a number of predictable reasons.
and
> Inzlicht says that no matter what a person does, willpower is going to be a fickle commodity. It’s heavily influenced by many variables, and so it really cannot be trusted. “There are easier, less-muscular ways to engage in goal-directed behavior than relying on willpower,” he says.
Close enough for most purposes, really.
> But while the early ego-depletion concepts appear to be flawed, experts say that self-control can wax or wane for a number of predictable reasons.
and
> Inzlicht says that no matter what a person does, willpower is going to be a fickle commodity. It’s heavily influenced by many variables, and so it really cannot be trusted. “There are easier, less-muscular ways to engage in goal-directed behavior than relying on willpower,” he says.
Close enough for most purposes, really.
No, not close enough at all!
They show that willpower comes and goes for many reasons, but it is not a limited resource. You can't "use it up" in the morning, and thinking that way will lead you to actually having less willpower in the evenings even though you could have plenty!
They show that willpower comes and goes for many reasons, but it is not a limited resource. You can't "use it up" in the morning, and thinking that way will lead you to actually having less willpower in the evenings even though you could have plenty!
The original "science" is hard to accept & so is the rebuttal. In cases like these I defer to anecdata and that tells me what you'd call my willpower is finite.
I like to believe that willpower is like a muscle - it takes work to build it up, and you need to maintain it. Though unlike the human body's limitations, I agree that it can be nearly unlimited.
Tolerance for pointless corporate busywork on the other hand most certainly is a finite resource for most sane persons.
I recently started using spreadsheets for my todo list and it's been great. I put date in column A, which is far superior to Calendars or todo apps for visualizing dates in the future, and recurring goals e.g. do x for 30 days. I can re-order, and hide columns or future rows and I have an ever continuous history of past events. I use the column headers to specify goals categories or other aspects of my life such as “Strength and flexibility”, “Write / Do”, “Read / Listen” or “Social”. I try my best to limit 1 item per category and this helps me prioritize and balance across a spectrum of goals. I’ve used almost every todo app or system and they always end up being a wasteland of things I’ll never get around to. For work I like to use a Kanban type board and email.
I'm a long time user of GTasks [0], a rather simple application which serves most of my needs (notifications, repeating reminders with customizable frequency). The application is stable and feature rich enough, but author seems to be have abandoned it in favor of a clone with subscription model.
For the features that I feel missing, I've been hatching this plan for my perfect app for more than a decade. "Cloud hosted HTML5? Oh, but how do I get notification on my phone? Hm, maybe need to write a native one. Not easy to develop for Android from command line, ugh. Flutter?". Rinse and repeat.
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dayup.gtas...
For the features that I feel missing, I've been hatching this plan for my perfect app for more than a decade. "Cloud hosted HTML5? Oh, but how do I get notification on my phone? Hm, maybe need to write a native one. Not easy to develop for Android from command line, ugh. Flutter?". Rinse and repeat.
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dayup.gtas...
I use todo app to help remember the tasks and their details.
I understand human brain's capability to forget things from a little bit of details (sometimes key details) to the "entry" itself (Don't even know that a thing is forgotten).
There are many things that should be remembered/reminded via technology, especially things that can become disasters when not done regularly (e.g. paying credit card debt, backup data, etc).
I use Todoist but you are free to choose whatever you like. Even a notes app or paper notebooks.
I think it's good to have the following features for the app/method you choose:
* Recurring Tasks (every month, every 3rd Sat)
* Task Tagging and/or categorization
* Searching (seriously what method doesn't have this except paper notebooks?)
* Sub tasks (but this depends on how you use it)
* Attachments (for small files/images)
* Commenting (extra details/logs)
Edit: Formatting
I understand human brain's capability to forget things from a little bit of details (sometimes key details) to the "entry" itself (Don't even know that a thing is forgotten).
There are many things that should be remembered/reminded via technology, especially things that can become disasters when not done regularly (e.g. paying credit card debt, backup data, etc).
I use Todoist but you are free to choose whatever you like. Even a notes app or paper notebooks.
I think it's good to have the following features for the app/method you choose:
* Recurring Tasks (every month, every 3rd Sat)
* Task Tagging and/or categorization
* Searching (seriously what method doesn't have this except paper notebooks?)
* Sub tasks (but this depends on how you use it)
* Attachments (for small files/images)
* Commenting (extra details/logs)
Edit: Formatting
I've tried using several different todo apps but always found myself feeling scattered.
So I've kept it minimal and just use a text editor in the cloud, which is Google Docs. I can use the app on my phone while doing errands or can open it in a web browser on my laptop. The history is occasionally useful too.
But I strictly only maintain 3 documents to keep the scope limited:
- Todo Current /// items to work on this week, ordered based on priority
- Todo Future /// waiting on aspects before items can work on, reason listed
- Todo Art /// personal projects
Been using this system for years and it's been great for keeping streamlined and focused.
So I've kept it minimal and just use a text editor in the cloud, which is Google Docs. I can use the app on my phone while doing errands or can open it in a web browser on my laptop. The history is occasionally useful too.
But I strictly only maintain 3 documents to keep the scope limited:
- Todo Current /// items to work on this week, ordered based on priority
- Todo Future /// waiting on aspects before items can work on, reason listed
- Todo Art /// personal projects
Been using this system for years and it's been great for keeping streamlined and focused.
We’re working on an app that’s designed for recurring/daily todo lists, allows you to attach rewards (cash payout, gift card, crypto, …) and providing context/guidance. It already has a Zapier integration, native apps for iOS/Android and a web version which features 100% feature/ux parity. It’s 100% cloud/online-based right now though. We’re still working towards our MVP, but happy to send out invites to everyone signing up in the next few hours: https://questmate.com
It’s just bizarre that this post would warrant discussion. It should be obvious that todo apps are widely enjoyed by people as part of their way of working. This just comes off as a close minded, arbitrary view.
I had the same experience.
An iteration in a positive direction for me was switching to NotePlan.
Every day I get a fresh sheet of paper and I write my todo list as needed. If I want to bring in tasks from previous days, I can go find them and move them to today. My todos are intermingled with my notes for the day, saved links, and my journal.
This way, my list doesn't grow and grow if I don't tend to it, yet I also never lose todo items.
I can also make ad hoc todo lists on project pages, for instances.
I suppose it's quite similar to just using a notebook, except there's a view where you can see all of your todos.
An iteration in a positive direction for me was switching to NotePlan.
Every day I get a fresh sheet of paper and I write my todo list as needed. If I want to bring in tasks from previous days, I can go find them and move them to today. My todos are intermingled with my notes for the day, saved links, and my journal.
This way, my list doesn't grow and grow if I don't tend to it, yet I also never lose todo items.
I can also make ad hoc todo lists on project pages, for instances.
I suppose it's quite similar to just using a notebook, except there's a view where you can see all of your todos.
Every ToDo app I've used has really just been one or more list with a smidgeon of calendaring thrown in. The _best_ these apps can do is to make it a bit easier to add, manage and keep track of the items in those lists.
Having something running around behind me taking notes and nagging to get this and that done is useful,it is only the first part of the story. What I actually want (and I suspect most others) - especially given it's been fed at least some of the information necessary - is something that helps expedite the actual tasks efficiently
Having something running around behind me taking notes and nagging to get this and that done is useful,it is only the first part of the story. What I actually want (and I suspect most others) - especially given it's been fed at least some of the information necessary - is something that helps expedite the actual tasks efficiently
> Tasks are not the same. Get milk, write an essay, plan a vacation, reconnect with a friend. These are things of different magnitude, different emotional connection, different context and time commitment. Some tasks aren’t even tasks, e. g. simply items to keep track of or be reminded of. But TODO apps treat them the same.
This hits the nail on the head for me. I wonder if there's any to-do apps that let you ascribe effort/time to a task. Ranking current tasks by least effort would get me to start on one and get the ball rolling.
This hits the nail on the head for me. I wonder if there's any to-do apps that let you ascribe effort/time to a task. Ranking current tasks by least effort would get me to start on one and get the ball rolling.
No software system has reflected the true priorities in my life. Either it acts as a barrier to the chaos of multiple element priorities, or it tries to be an imperial filter of some sort, but no system has helped me truly prioritize in a way that’s meaningful.
I end up using thematic periods, where I prioritize some kind of epic that feels like it matters the most. Whether I’m the ceo of a successful company or the lowly person who is part of the two people eying success in the next one I experience the same problem.
Anyone else? I can’t be alone in this.
I end up using thematic periods, where I prioritize some kind of epic that feels like it matters the most. Whether I’m the ceo of a successful company or the lowly person who is part of the two people eying success in the next one I experience the same problem.
Anyone else? I can’t be alone in this.
Pretty much the same. I add my goals to Habinator app and set some milestones.
Check: https://habinator.com
Check: https://habinator.com
I've found nothing more effective than priority ranked todo lists in apple notes (linked to IMAP Notes). One for work, one for my personal life. If I see something on there too long, I either delete it, delegate it, or move it to the top. The work one gets edited more often.
The only "feature" I want really is a diff over time just to see what I've done and what I was doing at the time. I want completion/non-completion to be represented by deletions of lines/bullet points.
The only "feature" I want really is a diff over time just to see what I've done and what I was doing at the time. I want completion/non-completion to be represented by deletions of lines/bullet points.
Todo lists are handy for prioritisation and as a device for stopping your brain continuously looping back to unfinished business - which i learned is called the Zeigarnick effect from a brilliant article on this topic the other day https://www.wired.com/story/to-do-apps-failed-productivity-t...
After 10 years and trying at least a couple dozen different Todo Apps, these were most effective: 1. Excel, 2. Wunderlist (now Microsoft To Do), and 3. Trello: great for a surprising number of things.
Yet, I’ve since switched to the last Todo app I’ll ever use: 4” x 6” notecards.
Thinking on paper = build your mind.
Thinking in digital = build another’s.
Todos on paper = get work done.
Todos in digital = do more work.
Notes on paper = hard to create, hard to forget.
Notes in digital = easy to create, easy to forget.
Yet, I’ve since switched to the last Todo app I’ll ever use: 4” x 6” notecards.
Thinking on paper = build your mind.
Thinking in digital = build another’s.
Todos on paper = get work done.
Todos in digital = do more work.
Notes on paper = hard to create, hard to forget.
Notes in digital = easy to create, easy to forget.
I just can't remember anything. That's all.
I’ve found the trouble with Todo lists is that you fill them up and then start ignoring them as they are overwhelming. I’ve recently found Beeminder’s GTBee todo list app a good help as it forces you to enter a due date and fines you at least $5 if you don’t complete the task on the due date. That makes me highly motivated to keep checking the list and completing tasks.
If I find my todo list are overwelming, then it is because:
1. A task is not worth doing - delete it. I am using the app so I don't have to remember it, I am not taking orders from it. 2. Not organized well - if I am cleaning the house I don't want to see what I should do for my personal finances; gift buying guides for Christmas and so on. 3. The item is important, but not something I can do something about now. This indicates to me that I should split it into smaller parts, until I have a GTD next step.
I personally think that a todolist isn't worth much unless you are also blocking time in your calendar to do that task - and when you do, that is the task you will be doing not worrying about anything else.
1. A task is not worth doing - delete it. I am using the app so I don't have to remember it, I am not taking orders from it. 2. Not organized well - if I am cleaning the house I don't want to see what I should do for my personal finances; gift buying guides for Christmas and so on. 3. The item is important, but not something I can do something about now. This indicates to me that I should split it into smaller parts, until I have a GTD next step.
I personally think that a todolist isn't worth much unless you are also blocking time in your calendar to do that task - and when you do, that is the task you will be doing not worrying about anything else.
The calendar blocking is a really important point I’ve found too, so you make time to do the items in the list.
wait, what - you'd actually be paying somebody to tell you you've failed...?
Yeah. Not wanting to pay them motivates me to not fail.
... or to lie to the app?
Beminder is not for everyone. Personally it has changed my life for the better. Before I didn't have discipline, now I'm impressed with my accomplishments in several areas of my life. From shaving, pushups to 3D design, writing and losing weight. At one point I was keeping track of 21 habits with beeminder, now only 12.
I prefer to pay and still having this amazing tool than losing what I described above.
You can do the same without beeminder. The point is that having a punishment if you don't do what you said you will do is a good motivator.
I prefer to pay and still having this amazing tool than losing what I described above.
You can do the same without beeminder. The point is that having a punishment if you don't do what you said you will do is a good motivator.
I love Beeminder too (the sister app to GTBee). I’ve been trying to reorganise my habits into ones that aren’t “proxy’s” for what I want to really achieve (Eg “invoiced dollars”, rather than “did some client work”)
Interestingly I’ve found I haven’t done that. I try to make the tasks small enough that when it’s time to do them it’s not overwhelming and the potential fine is enough just sting to make me check the app regularly
habitrpg / habitica had me going for a while but got sort of complicated
I've recently been using Habitica again after a long hiatus (as this article predicts) and I have to agree. For those who don't know about Habitica, it tries to address the reward component of the problem by gameifying the TODOs; completing tasks rewards you with XP for your character and gold to spend on items, whilst failing to complete daily tasks or succumbing to bad habits damages your character. The problem is, the reward is meaningless unless you're invested in the game. If the RPG doesn't interest you or, like me, you lack the time to make sense of what exactly you're spending your virtual gold on and why, it doesn't feel like a reward at all.
That said, what does give me a real sense of reward is the streak tracker for daily tasks. Seeing how many days in a row I've managed to do a task _is_ rewarding to me, but as soon as that streak is broken, I lose a lot of the motivation to maintain it (which I believe is, again, a problem predicted by this article).
That said, what does give me a real sense of reward is the streak tracker for daily tasks. Seeing how many days in a row I've managed to do a task _is_ rewarding to me, but as soon as that streak is broken, I lose a lot of the motivation to maintain it (which I believe is, again, a problem predicted by this article).
I feel that helping with this is something that should be within the grasp of listening software like Siri.
Learning your routine, knowing what to do when it hears "we need more milk" or hears you arrange a hair cut, being able to make an email confirming action points from a phone call, etc., etc.
Progress on making these listening assistants be actually useful has been disappointing.
Learning your routine, knowing what to do when it hears "we need more milk" or hears you arrange a hair cut, being able to make an email confirming action points from a phone call, etc., etc.
Progress on making these listening assistants be actually useful has been disappointing.
The title of this totally made me think of this classic story:
Manna – Two Views of Humanity’s Future: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
In this story, the human essentially becomes a robot, with just headphones and a "todo app" telling the human what to do every step of the way
Manna – Two Views of Humanity’s Future: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
In this story, the human essentially becomes a robot, with just headphones and a "todo app" telling the human what to do every step of the way
I love workflowy for keeping organised, because zooming in and out is fantastic for focus. Dragging tasks up and down lets me prioritize.
Managing my todo list also organises my brain and lets me relax knowing I won't forget things.
Working just fine for me and I'm not sure I would want a bunch of 'smart' features being all clippy on me.
Managing my todo list also organises my brain and lets me relax knowing I won't forget things.
Working just fine for me and I'm not sure I would want a bunch of 'smart' features being all clippy on me.
zooming in and focusing on something is such a killer feature! i really couldnt imagine going back any regular todo app that didnt allow you to do that
I’ve tried a number of apps but I just keep on going back to a pretty notebook and a pen. I might need something different if I had more deadlines, I dunno, I have gone to great effort to generally free my life from those.
Habitica is a gamified todo that does well enough to be around for many years. Never worked for me.
Habitica is a gamified todo that does well enough to be around for many years. Never worked for me.
I used Habitica for a while, but after my character became super-powerful I had no real motivation to do it all over again.
Have you tried Habinator?
https://habinator.com
https://habinator.com
Nope, and my instant reaction to Happy Blob Friend under the first paragraph or so of copy is that I wanna punch him, not let him persuade me to do stuff.
That is part of what i'm trying to accomplish in https://prot.ai Reduce friction with scheduling and recurrence.
By using cloud apps, calendar aware, an operate by difference. So the calendar negotiates for you when is a good time.
Some unsolicited advice for you:
* That initial "How to use it" diagram completely puts me off the product - it seems dizzyingly complex, and to have that right at the top before I even know what the product is seems like a mistake.
* Consider getting a native speaker to review the text - the grammar is off in a fair few places.
* Write a simpler paragraph for what your product does - I've read through the entire landing page, and your HN comment, and I still don't understand what it is you are selling.
* That initial "How to use it" diagram completely puts me off the product - it seems dizzyingly complex, and to have that right at the top before I even know what the product is seems like a mistake.
* Consider getting a native speaker to review the text - the grammar is off in a fair few places.
* Write a simpler paragraph for what your product does - I've read through the entire landing page, and your HN comment, and I still don't understand what it is you are selling.
This reads like a blog post I would have written ~15 years ago after giving up on Remember The Milk. It frustrated me that I still had to organize my own mind and the todo app didn't actually take responsibility for telling me what to do (when I wanted to do it). I then discovered I had ADHD.
I've found the best TODO 'app' is google calendar and a journal. I also have white board where raw idea get put down, but there id no real organization. once I decide I like the idea, task, ect I work it into my calendar and/or journal and go from there.
Same. Recurring and one-off scheduled tasks go on gcal (pay rent, go to dentist tuesday). one off things like grocery lists, notes, writing snippets go in a journal synced across devices (iA writer in a git repo).
I also use a Trello board for tracking longer term goals/personal projects.
I also use a Trello board for tracking longer term goals/personal projects.
Does your calendar get cluttered?
I use iOS Reminders to track things like “Every month on the 1st Saturday run the cleaning cycle on my washing machine”. And I’ve got 23 recurring todos like this. Feel like these kinds of things would clutter my calendar.
I use iOS Reminders to track things like “Every month on the 1st Saturday run the cleaning cycle on my washing machine”. And I’ve got 23 recurring todos like this. Feel like these kinds of things would clutter my calendar.
Not really, but maybe it’s because I don’t track habits or hobbies (go to gym, write, play guitar, etc)
Friend of mine started doing edtech company and shown me his prototype and it blowed my mind: he simply designed stuff after WoW gameplay. It looks and feels addictive, it is collaborative and stuff. This is clearly the future indeed.
Task tracking is a component of, but not all, of project/goals planning.
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ive had much better luck with outliners like dynalist (and previously workflowy) and its the longest ive ever stuck with a single system (maybe 5 or so years). i think the lack of any structure helps things a bit since it gives you more freedom to arrange things depending on the type of task.
with an outliner everything is a bullet point (or node). every node has an optional note section, and every node can have more nodes nested underneath it. thats basically all there is to it, but it means you can arrange things to be a basic a shopping list, or a project that holds many other sub nodes/folders, or if you were writing an article or a book you could have each node be a sort of a header/chapter description and then the content written in each note section.
ive found that rescheduling or tagging features in most todo apps just ends up being more work than actually doing the tasks themselves, so the way i organise my todo list now is by just using now/next/later nodes. i usually have a handful of tasks in the 'now' section, and maybe 10 or so in 'next'. when i run out of tasks in 'now' i move things up from next/later or if there are too many tasks in 'now' i move them to 'next'. the 'later' section is an unholy mess of things but it really doesnt matter because that section is collapsed/hidden most of the time so its not overwhelming and the search is good enough that i can pull something back up easily enough without having to organise anything or follow a system.
overall, the thing i try to remind myself is that i can only work on one thing at a time. its irrelevant whether there are 10 or 1000 tasks up next after the current one. the only thing i need to worry about right now is working on the most important task.
personally i dont get much out of marking something off the list or keeping a 'done' list. just actually completing the physical task is enough of an achievement for me.
about point #5. i would really love to see a solution to that. its the one thing that bothers me about my current setup. small tasks and chores are mixed in right beside big projects and sometimes i only want to work on one type and hide the others. the only thing i can think of its maybe filtering the list by certain words, or maybe the node content since small tasks are just usually 1 node, and projects have many sub-nodes. but its not always that simple either, so other than the only solution is to go back to tagging things.
with an outliner everything is a bullet point (or node). every node has an optional note section, and every node can have more nodes nested underneath it. thats basically all there is to it, but it means you can arrange things to be a basic a shopping list, or a project that holds many other sub nodes/folders, or if you were writing an article or a book you could have each node be a sort of a header/chapter description and then the content written in each note section.
ive found that rescheduling or tagging features in most todo apps just ends up being more work than actually doing the tasks themselves, so the way i organise my todo list now is by just using now/next/later nodes. i usually have a handful of tasks in the 'now' section, and maybe 10 or so in 'next'. when i run out of tasks in 'now' i move things up from next/later or if there are too many tasks in 'now' i move them to 'next'. the 'later' section is an unholy mess of things but it really doesnt matter because that section is collapsed/hidden most of the time so its not overwhelming and the search is good enough that i can pull something back up easily enough without having to organise anything or follow a system.
overall, the thing i try to remind myself is that i can only work on one thing at a time. its irrelevant whether there are 10 or 1000 tasks up next after the current one. the only thing i need to worry about right now is working on the most important task.
personally i dont get much out of marking something off the list or keeping a 'done' list. just actually completing the physical task is enough of an achievement for me.
about point #5. i would really love to see a solution to that. its the one thing that bothers me about my current setup. small tasks and chores are mixed in right beside big projects and sometimes i only want to work on one type and hide the others. the only thing i can think of its maybe filtering the list by certain words, or maybe the node content since small tasks are just usually 1 node, and projects have many sub-nodes. but its not always that simple either, so other than the only solution is to go back to tagging things.
Anybody building something that takes these principles into account? Particularly 3 (sense of accomplishment) and 7 (context).
I've documented my approach which is to not use an app at all, but instead a single text file that becomes a list of things done by the end of the day: https://jeffhuang.com/productivity_text_file/
The notes you take during the day, and past lists are all easily searchable in a text file.
The notes you take during the day, and past lists are all easily searchable in a text file.
I think https://momentum.earth/ gets a few things right (no affiliation)
Check out Amazing Marvin (https://amazingmarvin.com/)
I build something that for me addresses 1-3 (7 I guess depends on how you use it). Feel free to check it out: https://thisweek.rocks/
(localization for weekday names coming after my vacation)
(localization for weekday names coming after my vacation)
I've always thought a good strategy would be to plan work for other people. That gives you a 3rd person perspective.
I've found that "Todo apps" are generally useless for me. The list gets too big, or it has limited support for priorities or dependencies or whatever, so I built my own.
Its philosophy is built around the fact that I'm only ever going to be working on one major, todo-worthy task during a given minute. There's no reason to inundate me with dozens of things I could be working on when I'll only ever be doing one. And most of the time, I'm ambivalent to what I'm doing — if I need to consult a Todo list to remember it, clearly it's not something I'm actively working on, since I don't (yet) need help remembering those.
It's been very effective when I can use it (it needs a few tweaks so it can accept tasks from multiple sources, rather than one singular list). The core workflow is to jot down a task name and a priority in a text-based, line-delimited list file. Then, when you have time to do something, the app parses the list of tasks and selects exactly one at random, weighted by the priority. At that point, you have four options: - Defer the task and roll for a new one (which increments a counter on the task, and does not guarantee that you'll actually get a different task!) - Log some time on it, and optionally roll for a new task (again, not guaranteed to be different) - Mark it done, and roll for a new task - Exit the app
It knows about repeating tasks, start and due dates, dependency trees, and "stints", which are just a log of the time you spent on a particular task. It can filter tasks based on how much time you have to work vs. how long you estimate it will take, whether there are unsatisfied dependencies, etc. There's even an option that tries to assign you tasks that try to keep your "mood" steady. You can optionally annotate tasks with a mood tag (which is just a float), with the idea being that tasks with positive values are pleasant, and ones negative values are unpleasant. If it assigns you a mood-tagged task and you work on it, it adds the value from the tag to a global mood variable, and the default priority scheme tries to keep it around 0. In other words, when you do something pleasant, it builds up a buffer so you can handle something unpleasant. Or, if you do something unpleasant, it tries to reward you by giving you something pleasant to do.
The crown jewel is the LISP-y functional priority language that implements these dynamic tweaks to the priorities. For example, I have some rather daunting tasks that entail a lot of repetitive, monotonous work. Since it knows when I've been working on it, I can script it to de-prioritize those based on how much time I've spent on them lately.
It's technically open source (it's a TUI app written in Go), but I'm hesitant to post a link here since it's not robustly tested, the code isn't pretty, and the README is written in a sarcastic, derisive tone. I'm hoping to rewrite it after I finish up a library I'm working on to make it a bit more generally useful.
Its philosophy is built around the fact that I'm only ever going to be working on one major, todo-worthy task during a given minute. There's no reason to inundate me with dozens of things I could be working on when I'll only ever be doing one. And most of the time, I'm ambivalent to what I'm doing — if I need to consult a Todo list to remember it, clearly it's not something I'm actively working on, since I don't (yet) need help remembering those.
It's been very effective when I can use it (it needs a few tweaks so it can accept tasks from multiple sources, rather than one singular list). The core workflow is to jot down a task name and a priority in a text-based, line-delimited list file. Then, when you have time to do something, the app parses the list of tasks and selects exactly one at random, weighted by the priority. At that point, you have four options: - Defer the task and roll for a new one (which increments a counter on the task, and does not guarantee that you'll actually get a different task!) - Log some time on it, and optionally roll for a new task (again, not guaranteed to be different) - Mark it done, and roll for a new task - Exit the app
It knows about repeating tasks, start and due dates, dependency trees, and "stints", which are just a log of the time you spent on a particular task. It can filter tasks based on how much time you have to work vs. how long you estimate it will take, whether there are unsatisfied dependencies, etc. There's even an option that tries to assign you tasks that try to keep your "mood" steady. You can optionally annotate tasks with a mood tag (which is just a float), with the idea being that tasks with positive values are pleasant, and ones negative values are unpleasant. If it assigns you a mood-tagged task and you work on it, it adds the value from the tag to a global mood variable, and the default priority scheme tries to keep it around 0. In other words, when you do something pleasant, it builds up a buffer so you can handle something unpleasant. Or, if you do something unpleasant, it tries to reward you by giving you something pleasant to do.
The crown jewel is the LISP-y functional priority language that implements these dynamic tweaks to the priorities. For example, I have some rather daunting tasks that entail a lot of repetitive, monotonous work. Since it knows when I've been working on it, I can script it to de-prioritize those based on how much time I've spent on them lately.
It's technically open source (it's a TUI app written in Go), but I'm hesitant to post a link here since it's not robustly tested, the code isn't pretty, and the README is written in a sarcastic, derisive tone. I'm hoping to rewrite it after I finish up a library I'm working on to make it a bit more generally useful.
Sounds intriguing.
I tend not to have a long list, and I don't even do it on todo apps. I just put them on somewhere in which I can remember and create some bullet points to simplify the tasks and not become overwhelmed on the following tasks.
I used to try and set up the perfect system for my notes. I got caught in endless cycles of coming up with some structure, finding new tools, etc. — only to then barely ever write down anything because it never quite fit into any of the boxes I'd prepared.
I used to try out a new todo app every other month, enthusiastic that this time I'd find the system that would finally enable me to never let anything fall through the cracks.
I'd plan out the perfect pipeline of bookmark - triage - read/watch/listen so that I could stay on top of every great talk, article, interview or book anyone had ever created and shared with the world. You can probably guess what happened.
Then, for some reason, I just got more... relaxed? at some point. Have a thought? Just make a note, doesn't matter if I'll ever look at it again or it will still make sense in a week. Sometimes I go back and expand on things. Sometimes I event write something out of it. Most times I don't and that's fine. Find something cool? Just bookmark. Maybe I'll look through them in a moment of boredom one day soon, maybe the never-ending influx of hot new content means I'll never get around to it. Whatever. Want to or think I should do something? Make a task, don't set a date, maybe I'll get back to it, maybe it turns out I don't want or need to do it ever. Got something you keep putting off? Maybe just delete it after the tenth time, it'll come back to you if it's worth it.