Is there such a thing as a sustainable todo system?

This is a really interesting problem.

Here is my solution: I've resorted to sticky notes placed semi-organised on my wall next to my computer. They're roughly organised by priority, and roughly by project.

There are a few reasons why this system is awesome:

1. High priority tasks cannot be easily "shifted down" to put something else above them. This forces me to deal with oldest first.

2. The only way to make something even higher priority is to go further up the wall. There is a limit to how high I can reach, therefore I have to be REALLY sure about putting something high on the list.

3. I'm using cheap sticky notes. The glue lasts about 3 weeks before it falls off the wall. If I haven't done it in that time, it's not going to happen. It also obviously wasn't that important and deserves to be on the floor. Occasionally, I go and pick up the drop offs and double check if I really should've done anything with them.

4. It's tactile. When something is done, there is nothing more rewarding that taking down the note, screwing it up and throwing it in the bin. TAKE THAT TASK!!!

I know intellectually that people actually do good stuff with OmniFocus, but to me the point of keeping a to do list is to reduce friction. And OmniFocus seems about as bristly and rough a program as I've ever seen. I haven't looked at it in a while, so maybe it's gotten better, or maybe one really has to have bought into in the whole GTD mindset to grok it, but even after a week of trying to come to grips with it, I could make no headway and fled back to org-mode.

voting for plain text or pen and paper. What I've found most helpful is writing down 'predicted time required' next to each task. And then if you run over adding an additional prediction next to it. And if you run under writing how long it actually took. I quickly realized my poor time management was due to habitually underestimating the time certain types of tasks take me to complete.

An additional benefit is if you ever need to establish billing or sweat equity valuation, you already have a log of time put into everything.

The best compromise that I've found between plain text and a structured to-do sytem is TaskPaper. It's more or less a to-do enhanced notepad and it's the only to-do system that I've manged to stick with for more than a week. I think it's because it's so free-form that it works for me. Like a dynamic outline.

If you're a mac person, it's worth checking out: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper

I built a minimal and unobtrusive week planner/to-do app out of my own needs (because nothing else worked for me): http://weekis.com (discussion at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1466775)