41–50 of 205 posts
"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?
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.
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.
wait, what - you'd actually be paying somebody to tell you you've failed...?
#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...
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.
#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...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 do: punt, punt, punt, dead.