Can we get "(for me)" added to the topic here? There's no such thing as an organizational system that works (or doesn't work) for every person out there.<p>I personally use Taskwarrior[1] for work (because I'm in the terminal all the time anyways), and aside from a couple of edge cases, it's the simplest and most effective thing I've found.<p>Our group uses a JIRA[2] instance that I've customized the heck out of to make an effective "This is what needs done, grab this if you have any spare time" system. The motto is "No ticky, no worky" - anybody doing anything work related generates a ticket for it. We've got shell aliases hooked into the web service, so anybody can just do a command like:<p><pre><code> ja awesomeproject 'Finish work on the gonkulator' inprogress
</code></pre>
For home and personal, I'm a fan of Any.do[3], it's a Chrome webapp and native Android app. The Chrome app lives in a button on the top bar for easy access, the Android app stays in the notification pane and shows what you should be doing next, and it has this feature called Moment where it runs you through your pending tasks once a day, and you mark them as done, to do today, or to do later. Great way to make sure you keep visibility on stuff.<p><pre><code> [1]: http://taskwarrior.org
[2]: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
[3]: http://any.do</code></pre>
I've had issues with TODO list in the past, but settled on a combination of a Kanban board using Trello and Pomodoros, which works quite well so far. If anyone is interested, this is what we're doing:<p>This is how our board looks like: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/LnD5a5H.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/LnD5a5H.png</a><p>Each Monday, we pull a week worth of tasks from the Backlog to the Weekly sprint. Each morning, we pull a day worth of work to the Daily goal. We separate Blocked, Actionable and non-Actionable (things that can't be worked on just yet, but aren't quite "blocked". those are usually the tasks that sit around with the rest of the actionable tasks, but ignored because for some reason there isn't much to be done about them). In the end of each sprint, we archive the "Done" list and start a new one. The numbers in the `()` are the estimated time, and we have bookmarklet [1] that sums it up for each list (for when we plan the weekly sprint).<p>[1] <a href="https://gist.github.com/shesek/5185168" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/shesek/5185168</a>
I usually keep a local "todo" list in each project I'm on. It helps me focus, and if I'm away from a project for a while it helps me figure out what I've done (I seldom remove old entries, as it gives me a sense of history).<p>Like most processes, it's better to keep something like this lightweight. "Nested todos" are about as fancy as things get.<p>I also check the todo lists into the project. Sure, it makes things a little dirty. On the other hand, it saved another person's bacon last year when I was forced to flip ownership of a project over to that person without much warning. (He discovered the todo list, and emailed me a huge thanks).<p>Todo lists in a wiki can work well to keep a loose team on the same track, too. Again I think the secret is to keep this lightweight.<p>If you're installing "Whizzy Enterprise TODO" servers or having meetings about how to manage todo items or trying to extract metrics from todo lists, my guess is that you've put too much drama into the process and should take a walk to cool off. :-)
I understand what the author is trying to say, and I've been in that situation where I've mixed small tasks with short and long term projects. I've tried a number of things over the years, but a todo list created with pencil and paper is the most effective way for me to manage my work. It is not a motivational tool. It's not a project management tool. It's simply a task tracking system with very low overhead. Everyone's different, but todo lists do work for me if the items are scoped properly and prioritized.
Hasn't the Harvard Business Review ever read the book "Getting Things Done?"<p>Anyone serious about managing their time is familiar with each of these problems and develops their To-Do list with these complexities in mind.<p>The To-Do list is dead. Long live the To-Do list.
TODO lists -don't- work? Maybe they'd work with some mindfulness, context and discipline? The author acts as if David Allen's "Getting Things Done" did not exist. GTD calls for all these things and, at the most basic level, you're tasked with assigning priority to, creating context outlines for and estimating time commitment for all of your tasks during the first time block in your morning.<p>GTD became well-known because it works. You just have to take the book seriously enough to both finish and internalize it. Difficult, perhaps, for many in the information-age [quick-fix-age]. GTD is a lifestyle versus a system. That's the only way it works.<p>Software: org-mode is what I use and it's amazing. You can create massive collapsable lists with TODOs, outlines, context with code-blocks that can be set to any language, direct links to files/emails/websites/almost-anything. It's versatility and scope is so enormous that it can be adapted to suite any conceivable need. Like scheduling? Go to a TODO item and CTRL-s (C-s for you fellow emacs users) and a calendar pops up. Select a date, hit enter and it's agenda'd. The agenda can be set up to send you reminders via iCal, Growl/libnotify/Snarl, appointment-mode, Remind, Google Calendar... practically anything!<p>The problem with these brilliant systems is the initial time commitment where there are no pats on the back (no insta-grata) and no payout of any kind. They're both intricate systems that work like a circuit - if the circuit isn't complete, it is broken.<p>Excellent org-mode guide: <a href="http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html" rel="nofollow">http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html</a>
Todo lists work great! They may not work for everybody but I wouldn't know how to get through the day without my lists.<p>I use them pretty much like an OS would schedule tasks to avoid the pitfalls mentioned in the article. If a task is 'runnable' it will get its share because I go round-robin along the lists without preference. All this boils down to is some common sense and self discipline.
All of the "problems" that he listed of to do lists are solved by using the "Getting things done" method from David Allen.<p>I personally hate the method of blocking off tasks in a calendar because it is:
a) Not agile (can't adjust your priorities quickly). So you get sick one day then you have to adjust your entire calendar for the next month?
b) Very cumbersome and totally not suited to the concept of lists of things to do.<p>To do lists are perfect for storing information about what you might do in the future. You can create various lists to hold information, so that you don't have to constantly try and remember it. Then each day you prioritize and figure out which tasks you are actually going to work on. The point of the to do list is not to create a list of tasks that you are absolutely going to work on necessarily. Instead it's a way to store information and then jog your memory when you decide what you are going to prioritize and actually work on.<p>So overall I think the idea of forcing yourself to plan ahead of time exactly what you are going to do several days in advance is a horrible idea and very ineffective. What if something more important comes up on the day? You get a call from Techcrunch that they would like to feature your app. Sorry Techcrunch you're not on my calendar.
Asana really changed this for me. I found that for me, personally, breaking a task in to subtasks with the right level of granularity is the perfect solution to combat inaction. If I see myself avoiding a task, I know I haven't deconstructed it enough.<p>Once the subtasks are small enough I can happily get working, and I get the satisfaction of marking things "complete."<p>It also serves as a reality check because I've noticed I tend towards personal scope-creep. I finish a task, but while doing it I add more tasks semiconsciously. Then I never feel finished and I hate myself.<p>However, if I go back to my asana list, I can reality-check and realize I in fact did accomplish the original task. Then I can consciously choose to continue the new task or abandon it or add it to the list for later.
Of all of these objections, only "heterogenous priority" and "Lack of commitment devices" are unsolved by using a hierarchical to-do list.<p>Paradox of choice? Group your tasks into categories so that you can't see the whole list at once.<p>Heterogenous complexity? Divide your tasks into subtasks so that everything is ultimately broken down into roughly equal sized chunks.<p>Lack of context? Again, organize everything into sublists so that you <i>do</i> have context. Put notes under the item if you need even more context.<p>Heterogeneous priority? This is just not a problem with to-do lists in the first place. You have a reminder there, so take care of it before it becomes a problem. If you need another tool <i>in addition</i> to make sure you actually get it done, that is not an indictment of to-do lists' inherent ineffectiveness.<p>As for the lack of commitment devices, this is again not some fatal blow to to-do lists. To-do lists are not going to magically solve all of your problems. You will need other tools and you will need to establish good habits as well.
Calendars work when other people are depending on your decisions, and it's basically more important to make a decision than anything else. Everything is driven by the need to make that decision. The decision may be imperfect, but the overall system can tolerate that most of the time - and when it cannot, it appears as a schedule problem.<p>Calendars fail when you need to perform labor to complete a piece of work, and you don't know how long it'll take. A to-do list is a detailed list of tasks to complete, generally in a specific order, to complete a piece of work. That work is probably part of a larger piece of work. There are dependencies between pieces of work. Times, if they exist in the to-do list, are generally estimates.<p>The only way to put tasks into a calendar, if you want the calendar to reflect reality, is to pad out each task with extra time. That way, the schedule doesn't fail.<p>However, if you padded out your to-do list with enough extra time so you could fit it into a calendar that could remain largely unchanged for the next year... your productivity would be pretty low. It would be a pretty relaxing job, however.<p>There are problems when these two different ways to organize work aren't reconciled correctly. You have work crunches, where people are forced to work late, or you have calendar failures where your obligations to outside parties aren't met, or both.<p>Both are intolerable, and a sign of bad management.
I use a hybrid approach of GTD for managing lists and the pomodoro technique ( a task time bucketing system) for execution of tasks. It works well for me. GTD isn't perfect but it does cover many of the concerns that the author has raised.<p>Using the GTD approach you can minimise the heterogenoous complexity, priority and lack of context problems. Frequent reviews of your lists will mean that your action lists contain work that has to be done, this helps to reduce the effect of the heterogenous priority since you will tackle the tasks sequentially (they will all have similar priorities). Most tasks that have a high priority are not always urgent and can be planned. GTD and the pomodoro technique both have mechanisms for dealing with urgent, high priority interruptions.<p>I know my post isn't too clear if you are not too familiar with GTD and pomodoro but I just want to briefly illustrate that there are a few approaches out there to help.<p>1. GTD (<a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart...</a>)
2. Pomodor technique (<a href="http://pomodorotechnique.com/" rel="nofollow">http://pomodorotechnique.com/</a>)
3. Time boxking (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing</a>)
I have friends that swear by the calendar, but it doesn't work for me at all. I tend to think in terms of dependencies - my plans and goals are basically one big DAG. What's nice though is that you only have to focus on the nodes that don't have edges pointing to them. I even use software for it; my life is basically a graph.
Scheduling works for me. Not a TODO list. I schedule what I shall be doing tomorrow and as soon as that's done, I get out of office. This motivates me to start work early in the morning, just to feel relaxed after finishing my work for the day by 11:00, for example.
I have never seen someone successfully guess at how long tasks will take and use that as a method of planning. At some point you are dropping tasks off, or adding them to your day which means you are still working with some prioritization system. Save your calendar for time-critical events/tasks, everything else is a list, hopefully prioritized.
The problems that the author mentions are behavioral problems not problems with to do lists in general. Nothing is stopping someone from adding priority, context, etc. To do lists in their simplest form are just a way to get it out of your brain and in a real-world format so you don't forget them.<p>It's actually a really interesting time for people building software in this space: <a href="http://alexdschiff.com/post/58069189811/chaos-in-consumer-productivity" rel="nofollow">http://alexdschiff.com/post/58069189811/chaos-in-consumer-pr...</a>. Lots of shut downs, fundraises, acquisitions and chaos that is consolidating user bases in one of the most fragmented industries around.<p>I'm writing an essay on the subject right now, and I think the biggest problems with productivity software come down to these three things:<p>1) It's not just your to do list. Most tools try to make arbitrary distinctions between what is a "to do" vs. what is not when the way that most people operate — and this is often a shocker to people that are into productivity — is just "I need to write SOME thought down for SOME reason LATER." For example, people might make a "note" that is just "Local Natives" - the name of a band. But isn't that representative of a task, "Check out Local Natives"? The lines are blurry, and while most people keep track of tasks in some way, they don't really "do" task management consciously.<p>2) No one is getting social right. On the one hand, there's Evernote, which deliberately ignores social, and then there's email, which is a great way to send things to people but a terrible way to keep track of things for the recipient. In the middle there are collaboration tools, but any project manager can tell you getting everyone to adopt a new system is heinous. IMO, you need to start with and build around the individual first (like Evernote), but tightly integrate a social layer to get those notes and to do's to other people on top of it.<p>3) Now what? The author makes an important point about context. Note-taking apps and to do lists have incredibly rich data about people that can be leveraged to actually help deliver that context and guide people through the next step. The next generation of productivity software will be less about helping people stay organized and more about actually helping them execute and get things done.<p>Disclaimer: I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company in this space called Fetchnotes. We're gearing up to release a new version with the above 3 things at the heart of our approach. If you're interested, get in touch: alex(at)fetchnotes(dot)com.
I've been evolving towards a hybrid of the two approaches. I think To-Do lists work much better when you also have "time buckets" scheduled on your calendar. In other words, schedule time on your calendar in which you'll be able to complete or at least partially work on specific tasks and then use that time appropriately.<p>For example, instead of scheduling "write up a proposal for so-and-so", schedule "work for so-and-so" and then writing up a proposal could be one of several tasks needed for that project. Instead of scheduling "vacuum the downstairs floor", schedule "House cleaning" and then that's just one of several tasks you could do.<p>I find that when you schedule individual tasks, it gets crazy because some things take more time and other things less time and pretty soon your life has nothing to do with what you actually scheduled. (Which feels weird.) On the other hand, if you just have a bunch of ToDos and your calendar is mostly empty, you're going to be constantly feeling frazzled. A combination of the two seems more ideal.
Don't be an idiot, I hate titles like this. Todo lists are one of the greatest things ever invented, and I use them every single day. Tons of them. I revel in them.<p>HN is such a great place except these ridiculous HERES AN INSANELY BROAD GENERALIZATION THAT IM GOING TO TELL YOU IS BAD FOR YOU WHEN IT IS IN FACT ONLY BAD FOR ME BECAUSE I DONT UNDERSTAND IT threads
I've found that having a "Done" list in addition to a todo-list works for me.<p>I have Trello as a todo list and used to use iDoneThis as my "Done" list.
With iDoneThis, all the projects and other stuff I was working on would get lumped together. I wanted to be able to separate projects, but still be able to see them all together in one feed.<p>I ended up making a web app to do this for myself and have been using it for the past few months.
Just decided to open it up for other people to use a few weeks ago, so I've been collecting some emails.
It's at <a href="https://jots.me" rel="nofollow">https://jots.me</a><p>I have some beta users right now, so if anyone's interested in trying it out, use this signup link for HN: <a href="https://jots.me/signup?code=hn5" rel="nofollow">https://jots.me/signup?code=hn5</a><p>It gives you 5 "cards" (what would be calendars in iDoneThis) so you can separate 5 different projects.
This sounds a lot like what Tom Limoncelli has been recommending in "Time Management for System Administrators"<p><a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596007836.do" rel="nofollow">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596007836.do</a><p>It takes real discipline to implement but you get a better control of your life if you do.
The first reason given for <i>why</i> to-do lists don't work is "the Paradox of Choice". Alas, the studies claiming to <i>measure</i> a <i>Paradox of Choice</i> didn't replicate and related followup studies have found roughly no effect of additional options on the ability to choose. In a great many contexts, people really <i>like</i> having lots of options - it makes it easier to find the exact thing they want. Maybe to-do lists is one of those.<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2013/08/more-is-more-why-the-paradox-of-choice-might-be-a-myth/278658/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2013/08/more-is-mo...</a>
TODO lists certainly can work. I use 2 levels of lists, a long-term list and daily lists. If a daily item isn't finished in a day I copy it into the next day's log entry at the end of the day. I've been doing it like this for around 7 or 8 years now. I combine this with my daily log (vim text file) to track what I've done and what I should be doing.<p>I don't use the lists to tell me exactly how to do things, but as a way to track what I to be looking at next. I also have status symbols for items. ! means important, P for when a patch has been sent for review but not pushed upstream and X for complete .
<i>When your list comprises items of varying priorities, you tend to take care of the “A” priorities and let the “C” priorities lie fallow…until it becomes an “A” priority itself.</i><p>I had to re-read this three times to be sure I was getting it... his contention is that sometimes a "C" priority is really more important than an "A" priority???<p>The entire point of prioritization is that you do the most important stuff first, and if you don't have time for everything, well at least the stuff that didn't get done was not really the important stuff anyway.
Aside from using my inbox like a traditional "inbox" (things stay there until they done and/or are no longer relevant) I started using a pen and paper and a bullet journal (<a href="http://www.bulletjournal.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bulletjournal.com/</a>) and it works amazingly well. I organize my month, week, day (every morning) keep track of appointments and write meeting notes all there. It's helped me keep track of the little things and make sure they don't fall though the cracks.
This is just focusing on the list as an ends to itself. I have little doubt that a list is not capable of "working." However, the among the many different processes of creating and organizing a list, there are probably jewels that help a ton of people. Oddly, these processes will be widely different for many different people that all have similar artifacts. This is why some people will say "to-do lists work for me" while someone with almost an exact replica list will say "it just wasted my time."
I'm glad this is being shared, because I struggled for years with GTD and couldn't find an alternative anywhere. When I started putting tasks in my calendar my productivity skyrocketed. I know when things will get done and it forces me to make tough choices. I have to decide what will get done, how much time will it take and when, but also what WON'T get done and forces me to say "no". We only have limited amount of time - the calendar makes it so clear.<p>This approach takes much practice to learn how much time everything takes, self-discipline and flexibility when it takes more than planned. The end result is much better control of personal time. Instead of just writing a next action for each project and being anxious whenever I get a new project request from a client whether I will have enough time to finish it by deadline; now, I can estimate project and tell from my schedule when each project will be finished.<p>To-do list has place in my system as either list of small tasks that I will do in one block of scheduled time. Also, I use list as someday lists, for example next books I will read. I still use some principles from GTD, but I no longer have never-ending to-do lists that paralyse me. Calendar forces me to create a realistic schedule.<p>This is not for everyone, and based by the popularity of GTD, I guess only minority of people can live in their calendar and schedule almost every activity. For those who are interested, I suggest starting with reading Peter Bregman: 18 minutes and Julie Morgenstern: Time management.
I use a 1-2-3 system that works fairly well for all my work related tasks. One main task, two medium ones and three small ones (guestimated myself). I always start with the big one. This is fairly conservative and less than I do on a typical workday but I think not adding too much is important.<p>I write them down in a notebook each day in the morning (might be better doing it the evening before) and then cross them off when done. Usually I add more adhoc stuff when I'm done with my "pyramid"<p>I keep track of long term stuff, ideas, projects and so forth in Trello but the day to day todo lists are in a plain notebook.
I also keep my inboxes empty and make it a point of emphasis to congratulate myself on removing stuff from my inbox (30 minute mailcheck is usually one of my 3 small items).<p>Personal stuff...I don't plan that at all.<p>For me that fixes most of the stuff mentioned in the post. The notebook TODO list works very well for me.
Not this again.<p>Seriously I am getting bored or the constant reposts on this subject.<p>Shock. Horror. Something that doesn't work for you works well for other and vice versa. Personally for me a nice notebook (the inner hipster in me really likes the soft cover lined page moleskine notebooks) works perfectly. I use pencil so I can rub out and update each item without having to cross things out and make things look ugly. It is quick and easy to update and very easy to do a quick visual parse over.<p>For electronic notes I find the Google Keep app to be pretty good with its timed and location based reminders. Although it is much slower to use than a notebook it is quite nice for when I have a low priority task that I will need to be reminded to get around too.
I've been working on a tool (<a href="https://then.io" rel="nofollow">https://then.io</a>) that solves all of these problems with the same effort that a todo list requires. Your tasks are scheduled between your calendar events and within the spans of time you set for them to be executed. They are ordered so that all of your due dates are met, with padding for mistakes.<p>Paradox of choice, lack of context, lack of commitment devices, and heterogeneous complexity are all solved by the nature of then.io. I would argue that priority doesn't matter, only due dates do. If you have too many tasks to finish before a due date, then you need to make the decision of which due date to push back.
How about to-do lists helping you to remember things? They definitely help me. I'm the kind of person who forgets everything, and doesn't even WANT TO keep useless stupid things in my mind rather than thinking something creative. Like pay rent. It is not an automatic monthly deduction in this apartment. So I HAVE to remember, otherwise it'll be a fine. There is simply a recurring task which reminds me of that. Keeping account of things that need to be done in a big project is also a thing everyone does. The thing is, everyone (including the author of this article) maintains a to-do list in one way or the other.
Yeah...I don't see how any engineer in any field can be effective without ongoing task documentation. Let's say that you have an eidetic memory and you don't need any to-do lists..I bet you also have problems letting go at night which may be interrupting your sleep. One way I've found to fix this is to-do lists! Not huge ones. Not complicated ones. Just one small page by your bedside. Each night, think of everything you need to get done tomorrow and put it on paper. Then excuse yourself from having to worry about it and go to sleep.
The absolute best organisational method I've found (for myself) is an 80 page 5mm square pad and a good quality pen (the Papermate InkJoy 500's are my current favourites).<p>I've tried Trello, Taskwarrior, org-mode, any.do, todo.sh and any number of other applications but they all do 1 (sometimes 2) things really well but fall down in other ways.<p>As a programmer who lives in front of a computer I find it deeply ironic that my best way of organizing myself/projects is pen and paper.<p>Any tablet that can accurately mimic the feel of writing will get my money instantly.
Definitely agree with the "calendar" part. It's hard to create some sort of week plan (or any sort of schedule/plan) with many to-do list types, and it was one of the reasons we developed Thymer back then.<p>I'm sure not everyone agrees with the importance of a calendar-like component, but it definitely helps to be more realistic about the tasks I plan to do. It also feels like a natural way to prioritize tasks (well, more natural than assigning a random priority number or letter to it, anyway).
I totally agree with the problems Daniel is mentioning. After being increasingly frustrated with most solutions available, we created an iOS app that attempts to solve exactly those problems. You tell the app how long a tasks will take, when it needs to be done and how important it is. Our app then selects the tasks with the highest priority for you every day. It's called Finido: www.finido-app.com<p>I am curious what you guys think! Is it a solution to the problems described by Daniel?
I've been using <a href="http://workflowy.com" rel="nofollow">http://workflowy.com</a> for the last couple of years to organize my work and it does work.
For people looking for more advanced todo systems:<p>1. GTD: Actionable todos with contexts (plenty of apps out there)<p>2. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Puts a accent on your goals (<a href="http://weekplan.net" rel="nofollow">http://weekplan.net</a> Disclaimer: my app)<p>3. Personal Kanban: Tells you not to start too many things at the same time (with <a href="http://trello.com" rel="nofollow">http://trello.com</a>)
I certainly think the idea of using a calendar instead looks more useful, as presented here. It does put you closer to actually DO what is on the list as it includes planning and time considerations. Perhaps a To-Do list is useful not to forget the things you must do, before you actually add it to a calendar. But I often find a pen and paper to be more suitable for that.
While not a To-Do list in the traditional sense, for me the Mailbox App[1] works rather well as a To-Do list. Every email is treated as a task, some are immediately finished, some I can "push forward" to e.g. tomorrow or next week and I receive a notice at that very time.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.mailboxapp.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.mailboxapp.com</a>
And how about the hubris of my self of yesterday claiming the right to decide what my self of today should be spending time on? I need to write down things that need doing and can't be forgotten, but surely I am in a better position to decide what to do over the next hour now than I was yesterday.
I maintain a lot - and they work for me.<p>One recent addition to the set has been a 'simple/tired' list - where I queue mind-numbing renamings etc.<p>It's useful when I just want to do something that requires no thinking at all (at very start of day or late at night).<p>Haven't found any better storage system then a .txt file yet.
I have tried todo lists on and off. It definitely works for me in the short term when I have a lot going on. Recently I started using an app called Swipes. It has been working great so far. I think it holds up because rather than fighting it, easy procrastination mechanism is built in.
I made a to-do list webapp with a twist just for myself, and it's been really helpful.<p>The twist is, every Wednesday, it calculates how many of my goals I've accomplished during the past week, assigns me a grade, and sends the grade to three of my friends, to help hold me accountable.
I use Omnifocus which mixes the concepts of projects, todo lists, and calendar scheduling together into a very flexible package.<p>I don't like that all my data is in a proprietary format but it's the only tool that's helped me get my chaotic business life under control.
Am I the only one that thinks this article is extremely similar to this one?<p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57368011/why-to-do-lists-set-you-up-for-failure/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57368011/why-to-do-li...</a>
The only to-do list that I've actually used for more than a week is Any.do. I really like how you can organize your tasks vaguely based on time (Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming, Someday). Adding that solves a lot of the author's problems.
I notice the author of this article is ceo of a company that sells personal and group productivity products and services. <a href="http://timebackmanagement.com/" rel="nofollow">http://timebackmanagement.com/</a><p>org-mode works for me.
I use either fargo.io (the super cool outliner) or I use a text file. As I do stuff I move it around or delete it from the list. It absolutely still works for me. :)
what I do is plan my personal tasks in Clear (without a due date) and Brightpod (<a href="http://www.brightpod.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.brightpod.com</a>). Luckily, Brightpod has a pretty powerful calendar that helps me plan my tasks on a weekly basis.