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Todo apps are meant for robots

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Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#191

Post by audiometry »

rtpg wrote: post #77

Almost all Todo apps have the problem of showing you stuff that you are incapable of just seeing things you _can accomplish right now_. I think people underestimate the amount of pain that comes from, over and over again, looking at a list of things you can't do anything about at a moment X. The only TODO app that I've found get this at least 95% right is Omnifocus with its billions of settings. Though there's still…

We all have different needs due to having different personalities. I need to be careful that I don’t get into a “checking things off my list” mode, as sometimes I’m feverishly doing trivial things on that list to keep myself feeling busy and distracted from what are one or two important but difficult things to work on.

So one heuristic I do is is try to start my day setting my “intentions” — identifying a handful of things on the list I would be pleased to have finished by days end even if absolutely nothing else on the list is touched.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#192

Post by bschne »

bodge5000 wrote: post #181
bschne wrote: post #102

My single biggest improvement in getting somewhat organized and productive so far has probably come from getting comfortable with some amount of chaos. I used to try and set up the perfect system for my notes. I got caught in endless cycles of coming up with some structure, finding new tools, etc. — only to then barely ever write down anything because it never quite fit into any of the boxes I'd prepared. I used to t…

I know this probably won't make much sense, but as much as I want to do this, I don't really know how.

That's the point, there is no "method" to discover, it just has to click at some point that it's OK like this. Not sure what brought it about in my case, but hope you'll arrive there as well.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#193

Post by HKH2 »

Bellamy wrote: post #111
HKH2 wrote: post #56

1. On your phone, you can use one app for recurring things that get done quickly (I use Loop Habit Tracker), and another app for more bigger/long-term/once-off tasks that might lapse (I use Tasks.org and it's pretty friendly with postponing - it gives you a few options and you select one). 2. You can get Loop Habit Tracker to automatically put the things you do on time at the top so it's easy to get started. You can…

I recommend you to try Habinator app.

I do my best to avoid proprietary software, but thanks anyway.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#194

Post by bodge5000 »

bschne wrote: post #192
bodge5000 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this probably won't make much sense, but as much as I want to do this, I don't really know how.

That's the point, there is no "method" to discover, it just has to click at some point that it's OK like this. Not sure what brought it about in my case, but hope you'll arrive there as well.

> there is no "method" to discover

Exactly, that's what makes it so great, but also so hard. Maybe it'd be easier if I didn't have a load of notes I want to keep already.

If I were to take a guess about why its so hard to know where to start (truth be told I dont really know myself), it would be where those notes go and where new notes go. But I guess the point of this "system" or lack thereof is that it doesn't matter, and if it does my brain will remind me of it until its done.

I've got some nice notebooks arriving tomorrow, maybe using them instead will help me transition (the extra friction to take notes will perhaps make me take less)

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#195

Post by sershe »

konschubert wrote: post #149
sershe wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 on this... My serial distraction until I finally switched to paper was writing TODO apps for myself, then abandoning them. The only one that worked well for an extended period of time would literally show you one task to do. You could do it, or choose one of the options like "cannot do for X hours" (e.g. I need to vacuum and someone else in the house is asleep, or whatever), "not enough mental energy" (it would po…

Wow, that sounds amazing. Do you have it somewhere?

Can't find it :( It was a self-hosted web app though, so it's probably not that useful anymore. I'm pretty sure 3 generations of web stacks were created, over-hyped and deprecated since I wrote it ;)

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#196

Post by taneq »

stavros wrote: post #122
rtpg wrote: post #77

Almost all Todo apps have the problem of showing you stuff that you are incapable of just seeing things you _can accomplish right now_. I think people underestimate the amount of pain that comes from, over and over again, looking at a list of things you can't do anything about at a moment X. The only TODO app that I've found get this at least 95% right is Omnifocus with its billions of settings. Though there's still…

The problem isn't with the app, it's with us. We keep adding things we "should get to at some point". Well, I've got news for you, you're not going to magically be a person that reads Russian literature in the future, you're going to be you, and you hate Russian literature even though it's "good". TODO lists are aspirational, not pragmatic. We make them for someone else, the person we want to be. Unfortunately, we'll…

There's a difference between aspirational to-do lists and an evergreen punch list. Things only get onto my to-do list in one of two ways: Me promising someone I'd do them, or me realising there was some nasty consequence to not doing them.

I like the use-by date on to-do items though. You should make a note of that somewhere. ;)

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#197

Post by chrisweekly »

nl wrote: post #70
chrisweekly wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[from TFA, quoted above] "When you mark a task as done in your TODO app, it just hides it." Those are some big assumptions and sweeping generalizations apparently made by the author; for example, my system leverages Roam Research. In Roam, a key bit of UX is to type cmd+enter to prefix any block element (Roam's atomic unit, renderered as an HTML ` ` list item) with a TODO checkbox, or to toggle its presence and state…

From point (1) in the post: > The amount of things one can customize is really large, but making all this decisions has a cost.

I don't see how that's relevant; my comment was about the OP's assertion that completed TODOs disappear from view. In Roam, when toggling an item from TODO->DONE, the "DONE" items persist in the UI wherever you created them. (No extra decisions involved.)

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#198

Post by qu4z-2 »

PikachuEXE wrote: post #187
PikachuEXE wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh ya the rescheduling for recurring tasks is one of the places that hurts. Would you mind sending a report via https://todoist.com/help ? I will do the same now (I didn't as I don't reschedule recurring tasks often)

I just created a tasks for "every Tue", reschedule to tomorrow (Wed) After marking it as finished the next one is still on next Tue

Ah, it seems like if you choose a date in the date picker, or from the "Today, Tomorrow, etc" list it keeps "Every Tuesday" in the text box and gives the behaviour you describe. I always schedule by typing, so I end up replacing "Every Tuesday" with "Wednesday" and then it doesn't work.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#199

Post by pps »

dugmartin wrote: post #163

For a long time I've had a glimmer of an idea for a todo app that combined automatic carryover (and slow automatic pruning) of items from day to day coupled with a ever expanding set of selectable frontends to engage the user. Example frontends would be things like "Wheel of Do" where you spin the wheel and it lands on an item, Castle Wolfenstien 2.5D shooter where a todo item is an enemy, a Star Trek style control p…

Try https://amazingmarvin.com/. I don't use it, but I remember they have developed something similar to your ideas.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#200

Post by pps »

avnigo wrote: post #166

> Tasks are not the same. Get milk, write an essay, plan a vacation, reconnect with a friend. These are things of different magnitude, different emotional connection, different context and time commitment. Some tasks aren’t even tasks, e. g. simply items to keep track of or be reminded of. But TODO apps treat them the same. This hits the nail on the head for me. I wonder if there's any to-do apps that let you ascribe…

https://nirvanahq.com/
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