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To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

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Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#71

Post by Maro »

crazygringo wrote: post #13

I don't know about most people, but this works terribly for me. Motivation is huge for my happiness, so I want to do something when I'm in the mood for it. This means I do keep a list of the things I need to get done, so whenever I've got free time, I take a look at the list and see what I'm most in the mood to do. Of course, this is the real world -- sometimes something has a firm deadline so you have no choice (so…

Watch out for 'Trivial Accomplishments'.

It's a term I came up with as I observed myself making todo lists, completing them, feeling good about it, but realizing that I'm not getting from A to B on important projects. It's (comparatively) easy to make todo items like 'buy milk', 'get haircut', 'go on date with X', 'read 1 chapter of ', but these are what I call trivial accomplishments. Having a todo list 100% made up of these is a good way to fool yourself, because you will feel good about yourself (for a while), because that's just how we work, the illusion of progress fools the brain.

Way out: Separate todo lists into trivial and non-trivial, eg. I have a separate Trello list for each. Make sure your non-trivial list is not empty and you make progress on it. Hard items are writing/output versus reading/input. Another good way to identify them is if they're about Deliberate Practice.

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#72

Post by cableshaft »

bigger_cheese wrote: post #44
nhebb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a manufacturing engineer, I used to have a short list of long term projects, a fair list of medium term projects, and a long list of tasks. A rolling todo list was the only way to stay on top of things. You can't be the Pinball Wizard when the job requires you to be the pinball.

>When I was a manufacturing engineer, I used to have a short list of long term projects, a fair list of medium term projects, and a long list of tasks. A rolling todo list was the only way to stay on top of things. I'm in a similar situation. This is what works for me. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of what I'm working on currently and my progress so far. I don't update it all the time - probably something like ev…

A spreadsheet is an interesting thought for juggling status of a bunch of different projects. I'll try that, thanks!

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#73

Post by sdx23 »

This is totally in accordance with: "Work expands so as to fill the time avaible for its completion." - which I found to be very true. I'm so much more productive, when time restricted. And even more so when schedule restricted, because you can't just say you take a short break which then extends for hours.

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#74

Post by Uw7yTcf36gTc »

manmal wrote: post #53
tarr11 wrote: post #23

I create todo lists because I forget what I wanted to do within minutes, or even seconds. Having a todo list at hand to write these things down means I don't lose them, even if I don't look at them again for weeks or months. Not sure where you'd put this on a Calendar.

Are you overworked or super stressed? You should not forget things this easily - I was the same in the first half of the year, and it was due to almost unbearable stress.

we are all overworked. todo lists are the only ways to add to the backlog.

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#75

Post by hexsprite »

The philosophy behind scheduling your to dos makes total sense -- if it’s in your calendar, it’s actionable, realistic, and more likely to get done.

Only problem is that it's tedious and time consuming to actually schedule each item.

I created Focuster (http://focuster.com) to solve this problem by automatically scheduling your to dos for you.

An extra bonus is that it reschedules based on cancellations and new appointments.

Would love any feedback you guys might have!

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#76

Post by oddlyaromatic »

cableshaft wrote: post #72
bigger_cheese wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When I was a manufacturing engineer, I used to have a short list of long term projects, a fair list of medium term projects, and a long list of tasks. A rolling todo list was the only way to stay on top of things. I'm in a similar situation. This is what works for me. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of what I'm working on currently and my progress so far. I don't update it all the time - probably something like ev…

A spreadsheet is an interesting thought for juggling status of a bunch of different projects. I'll try that, thanks!

Check out airtable- I use it for a similar purpose for long term things.

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#77

Post by setharb »

renaudg wrote: post #57

My personal experience is 100% in line with this, and it's beyond me why none of the major todo list apps feature drag & drop calendar integration. I'm reluctantly using Things, and the closest thing it has is due dates and "hide this task until that date". Surely, it wouldn't be that hard to implement a daily planner view that brings up your day's calendar in the right pane, a list of upcoming tasks in the left one,…

Have you seen SkedPal lately? http://www.skedpal.net/skedpal-2-0-whats-new/

Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done

#78

Post by setharb »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #37
coldtea wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know about most people, but this works terribly for me. Motivation is huge for my happiness, so I want to do something when I'm in the mood for it. That's a sure-fire recipe for never doing most things one needs to do, because most of those things are not things that one looks forward to anyway. Even for the core work someone does (e.g. writing for a writer), people mention time and again that setting up ti…

I concur. If you schedule in advance, it's much easier to break through the initial emotional barrier of starting the thing you're anxious about. I used to hate scheduling, now I swear by it. The change was entirely in my understanding what "scheduling" means. I used to treat this as iron-strong commitments. Those made me dislike scheduling because I felt I'm losing autonomy over my own life. Now, I treat scheduling…

You may want to try SkedPal. The Fuzzy Planning behind it works exactly as you described. http://www.skedpal.net/help/skedpal-basic-scheduling-concept...
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