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To-Do Lists Don't Work

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Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#11

Post by thinkersilver »

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.

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.

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.

1. GTD (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart...) 2. Pomodor technique (http://pomodorotechnique.com/) 3. Time boxking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing)

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#12

Post by prottmann »

nhebb wrote: post #5

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. Everyon…

I agree. We try many tools in our small team, but the main problem was, that we had to fill in simple steps or small problems and for that were all tools to complicated. Effect: after a short while nobody use them.

We come back to paper and whiteboard. For own simple tasks we use paper. For team tasks we use a simple whiteboard nearby the coffee machine ;-)

But after a while we had the problem that nobody see what the others have done (end up with too much talking -> waste of time).

We decide an another approach, we didn't write todos, but we write about what we have done. Advert ;-) We create http://teamspir.it to write a log about the daily work.

Effect: Everybody knows what the team member have done and why, because we write our sight of view about the things we have done. Positive effect was, that we review our work and look what we do right or wrong.

For me it is very motivating to write at the end of the week about all things i have done. It give me a better feeling about how many things are finished. Normally i have a wrong memory about that and i think "Oh god, i did not do anything this week", but this is wrong, when you reflect your work, you see how much you have done.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#13

Post by prottmann »

jacquesm wrote: post #3

Todo lists work great! They may not work for everybody but I wouldn't know how to get through the day without my lists. 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.

I think in the article they try to explain that todos are OK, but todos did not motivate or give a good feeling.

Because when you finish todos, you have more new todos, a never ending story. Thats why todo-list are so negative.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#14

Post by z92 »

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.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#15

Post by jacquesm »

prottmann wrote: post #13
jacquesm wrote: post #3

Todo lists work great! They may not work for everybody but I wouldn't know how to get through the day without my lists. 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.

I think in the article they try to explain that todos are OK, but todos did not motivate or give a good feeling. Because when you finish todos, you have more new todos, a never ending story. Thats why todo-list are so negative.

Yes, when you finish todos you have more new todos. That's the nature of life, it has nothing to do with the todos. If you don't feel like doing stuff, then don't. If you do, use lists. Todo lists are positive because they also contain the (usually invisible, but you can typically show them in most todo list software) list of completed tasks and over time that list will get impressively long, much longer than the one of stuff still to do.

People that are hard to motivate will be hard to motivate whatever tool or gimmick you use. Don't blame the tool for that.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#17

Post by uladzislau »

jacquesm wrote: post #3

Todo lists work great! They may not work for everybody but I wouldn't know how to get through the day without my lists. 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.

What do you use for todo lists?

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#18

Post by whiddershins »

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.

Once the subtasks are small enough I can happily get working, and I get the satisfaction of marking things "complete."

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.

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.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#19

Post by eatmyshardz »

whiddershins wrote: post #18

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. Once the subtasks are small enough I can happily get working, and I get the satisfaction of marking things "complete." It also serves as a reality check because I've n…

Do you ever find yourself avoiding to add sub tasks because you simply don't want to do that thing you've been putting off?

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#20

Post by eatmyshardz »

z92 wrote: post #14

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.

You bring up a great point that I think the article left out—scheduling the tasks ahead of time before the day you have to do them can help tremendously. For me, that is motivation in and of itself that I can just start the next day with it already planned.
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