I don't agree with the author. A to-do list is a way to reduce the cognitive burden of to-do ideas popping at the wrong time when you can do nothing about them and then forgetting about them when it's the right time to do them..<p>I agree that most of us (and I include myself in us) are incompetent at managing our to-dos though.<p>I think we need a better methodology than GTD to tackle to-do list.
I find a to-do list is great as long as you don't take it too seriously. When I have a sort-of-good idea - not good enough to drop what I'm doing now, but good enough that I don't want to forget it - I add it to the list. When I have some free time and want something to do, I check the list - and usually nuke most of it, because I've come up with better ideas, but occasionally there's a good one working there. Why waste brain capacity remembering things when I can outsource the job?
The concept of a to-do isn't necessarily bad, but not having a personal workflow of reviewing and prioritizing stuff at a regular interval (consider it a personal scrum meeting) renders it useless.<p>I prefer the concept of Monday (sometimes Sunday night) for planning and prioritizing my week. And a Friday review (or postmortem for the week).<p>There's some good stuff over at Scott Hanselmans's blog [1]<p>Also, this concept of three items and a flow is discussed in the following, "Getting Results the Agile Way" book [2]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmansCompleteListOfProductivityTips.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmansCompleteListOfP...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Results-Agile-Way-Personal/dp/0984548203/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Results-Agile-Way-Personal/dp/...</a>
A big win for me was separating my "todo list" (a list of lists that covers all my responsibilities) from my "agenda" (a non-negotiable contract with myself regarding today, and only today). If my agenda has more than 3 things on it, I consider that a red flag, e.g. I'm playing catchup or overestimating what I'll accomplish in one day.<p>Todo lists are important as reference documents. But my agenda is what I use to set and keep focus and maintain 'now' productivity (as opposed to 'when I get organized' productivity, which is what a giant todo list promises).<p>FWIW I use Trello for todo list(s) and TeuxDeux (as a pinned Fluid app) for my agenda.
Jeff seems to claim that having things written down in a list is mentally taxing, and perhaps for him it is, but I find I have the exact opposite experience. When I have too many little things that I need to do, I find that writing them down and then tucking the list away while I'm working really helps me reduce my stress levels. While I'm working I'm not constantly anxious that there is something I'm forgetting to do or thinking that there is something that I should be doing, and if I think of something while I'm working, I just add it to the list, instead of having to stop and think if I should do it now or if I'm going to forget it.<p>Also, for me (as someone with ADD), having a list with the exact next thing I should be doing as soon as I finish something seriously reduces the chance that I get completely distracted and waste a half hour switching between tasks.
I have about 25 items on my to-do list. All serious tasks, that need to be completed, for customers/co-workers, over the next couple of weeks.<p>What on earth makes anyone think that I could just "Do one thing"? Unless that one thing is "Check my to-do list, and get the next item on it done."
My to-do list is on a paper. I wrote it with a pen.<p>I'm not cramming my entire life in there, just the crappy errands and chores that I need to do. Otherwise I'd forget to do something, or be distracted by something I need to do later. Also when I finish my tasks I know that I'm really finished, and I'm not constantly thinking "did I forget something?" or "What else did I have to do while I was out?"<p>I feel there would be no use for a to-do app. To-do lists are just too low tech. Making it an app just makes it too complicated. Note: that doesn't mean don't digitize it if you want to.
Todos don't work because they suck at helping people plan and focus on what really matters.<p>I like some of the concepts taught in the 7 habits of highly effective, like:<p>- Instead of a todo list, use a weekly planner to get a higher level of perspective on your planning and achievements.<p>- List all your areas of responsibilities (husband, friend, brother, etc...) and set goals to make progress in these areas every week. This helps you lead a balanced life. No area go neglected for too long (like it is easy to do when you obsess over your business)<p>- Schedule the tasks that help you make progress towards your goals in your calendar, to prevent other less important things to get in the way. (First Things First)<p>I believe that some people on HN would benefit from the tool I developed <a href="http://weekplan.net" rel="nofollow">http://weekplan.net</a> which tries to use software to encourage a better planning behaviour. Please check it out if you are looking for an alternative to todolists or your own brain (please stop thinking you are ok with keeping it in your head. The day you dump everything you have got in your head into a system you trust, you will feel the relief and will never come back. Without a good external system to store your tasks, your brain is constantly reminding of what you need to do, and this is a waste).
> If you can't wake up every day and, using your 100% original equipment God-given organic brain, come up with the three most important things you need to do that day – then you should seriously work on fixing that.<p>This is simply the stupidest argument I've encountered recently. People possess various mental abilities, and the condition of one's mind is not necessarily stable throughout their life, every single day. I've had some days, wherein I woke up 5 minutes before the alarm went off, with the exact plan of that day I've made before sleeping in my head. But there are only so many of these days in my life; I am usually very forgetful, and a to-do list is way more precious than anything for me [1].<p>Mr. Atwood may bear a superior brain similar to that of Tesla's, but what most mortals bear is better for processing than storage.<p>[1] In case anybody is in pursuance of a decent note-taking workflow, I use Any.do and Zim (OSS desktop wiki) in combination. I've found out that a personal wiki is quite handy, especially if one is careful and ardent about organisation, and the software allows for efficient search.
Keeping stuff to do in your head is a terrible idea.<p>Writing stuff down is hard. This is common. The process of solidifying ones garbled thoughts that sound ok in their head onto paper/app into meaningful notes is hard and thus people avoid it. Not that lists are ineffective. Getting into a habit helps and is usually the start.<p>I like to think of to-do lists as an extension of my memory. Just like other tech and products I now rely on daily to get stuff done. Even this computer I write this on to communicate long distance.<p>Our brains are incapable of holding (depending on who you ask) a lot of stuff in short term memory. And naturally the stuff you try to hold in your brain over time fades away into nertherworld. Only to resurface later as a feeling that you forgot to do something. Panic sets in. You might remember it. And under stress while stressed you plow through it as though it is a priority pushing everything aside. Later realizing the stuff you pushed aside was just as important and you missed that too.. sounds all too familiar? yes an unorganized mind is constantly reactive vs proactive.<p>We know from GTD that all to-do list items need to be processed (filed) and then possibly pushed into a reminder system i.e. calendar. Then it has an urgency attached to it.<p>Furthermore, to-do lists are awesome for the moments you sit there wondering what to do next. Open your to-do list app and bingo. Work assigned to you immediately. Get stuff done! :-)<p>btw, if anyone wants to give my to-do list app with pomodoro technique a shot and provide feedback please do. iPhone only: <a href="http://www.gsdfaster.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gsdfaster.com/</a><p>Maybe this is the app some of u here needed to finally get into the habit of getting stuff done using to-do lists ;-)
I too, have tried countless amount of to-do apps, and none of them stuck with me for more than a week or so. It's frustrating. I look around me and see so many people use to-do lists, and it seems to work for them. So why then, does it not work for me?<p>I have no idea, but I have more or less abandoned trying to use a to-do list at all, simply because I work perfectly fine without one, so why change that?<p>Jeff mentioned 3 things, but I give myself a little more flexibility with that. Sometimes I can have 4 or even 5 if it's really necessary. But these are events or tasks that are really important to me. In fact, my mental to-do list usually takes at least a week or two to get fully "checked".<p>I wake up in morning reminding myself of the 3~5 most important things within my next week or week and a half. Things like securing a major contract, giving the best man's speech at my friend's wedding, maybe even writing a blog post (or simply coming up with ideas for one). Although I've been incredibly busy lately and have had no time to blog, I keep putting that on my mental to-do list every week, and it becomes part of the way I live. I start to notice things I want to talk about, give it some time to circulate in my head, then either discard it or write down the general idea for when I have time to write it. This works SO much better for me than the alternative.<p>How do I keep track of everything else? Simple. I make them routines. If I want to dedicate a year to learning chess, I dedicate time to it every week and treat it like any other important event in my life; it cannot be cut out unless it's absolutely critical. Having routines like these help me a lot with managing stress and frees my brain to consciously work on other things. Everything else that does not fall into the routine category or my top 3~5 to-dos is simply not important enough, and I cut them.
I don't have a to-do list, so much as I have a to-do priority queue. New tasks enter at one end, and the thing I do next comes out the other end. But more important, more urgent, and lower cost things can jump ahead in the line. There are probably a few things in there that have been waiting for years to get done, simply because they have such a low urgency, low importance, and high cost. Things like "build cool thing X without buying more power tools" or "learn to speak the tourist-relevant subset of language X" or "binge-watch show X on streaming service Y" consistently get shoved back behind "file tax returns" and "find and eliminate the smell" and "kill those rassafrassin', arglefarglin' ants before mowing again".
I thought this would actually be about maintaing a list of things <i>not</i> to do.<p>Which actually seems like a great idea. As Jeff correctly notes, you don't need a to do list for the things which matter. The things which pile up on to-do lists are the small, unimportant minutia which don't have any material impact on your life. All they do is drag you down with the cognitive burden of things you "should" be doing.<p>So, henceforth, I'm converting my "to do" list into a "to don't" list. A list of things I've given myself permission to never do and to never get distracted by.
I thought the recommendation would be use Discourse or something like that. Seriously, this is like the first post in years by this guy that doesn't mention Discourse (thank god).
I get stressed out when I don't know what I need to do. A combination of scheduling appointments and writing down everything I need to get done dramatically increases my productivity by removing the "oh shit, I know I have to do something but I can't remember what it is" moments.<p>I agree with Jeff about the fact you should know the top three things you need to do each day, but lower priority items can - and do - find a way to slip through the cracks without some kind of to do list.
Seeing this cycle is tiring. People became obsessed with to-do apps (still not sure why, I guess as a demo for trying different styles of app development), then they all tried to be the most polished to-do app, now comes the to-do backlash where people decide to-do apps were unnecessary to begin with. Jeesh.
Only thing really hurting my "to do" list of org-mode is that I have about 3 different computers that would need to be synced with what I'm currently "doing." I'm sure there is a good way to sync my settings, but I don't know it right off.
What works really well for me is an Untitled.txt with a list. Since it's not saved there's always the risk of losing it but that's kind of the point.
It forces me to deal with the most important things.