I use either fargo.io (the super cool outliner) or I use a text file. As I do stuff I move it around or delete it from the list. It absolutely still works for me. :)
To-Do Lists Don't Work
21–30 of 132 posts
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#22I've had issues with TODO list in the past, but settled on a combination of a Kanban board using Trello and Pomodoros, which works quite well so far. If anyone is interested, this is what we're doing:
This is how our board looks like: http://i.imgur.com/LnD5a5H.png
Each Monday, we pull a week worth of tasks from the Backlog to the Weekly sprint. Each morning, we pull a day worth of work to the Daily goal. We separate Blocked, Actionable and non-Actionable (things that can't be worked on just yet, but aren't quite "blocked". those are usually the tasks that sit around with the rest of the actionable tasks, but ignored because for some reason there isn't much to be done about them). In the end of each sprint, we archive the "Done" list and start a new one. The numbers in the `()` are the estimated time, and we have bookmarklet [1] that sums it up for each list (for when we plan the weekly sprint).
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#23Todo 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.
Common sense and self discipline--exactly. This is where mindfulness comes into play: self monitoring your status & progress, and introspecting to be cognizant of your motivation. "Am I doing what I need to be doing, or am I distracted?" "If I'm distracted, is there some personal reason, and if so, do I need to take care of that first?" Etc.
I find a bit of meditation while planning my work for the day helps a lot.
A relevant plug, for the to-do list faithful: My brother and I are building a to-do app that helps you organize tasks, monitor procrastination, maintain mindful focus, and track time:
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#24[deleted]
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#25Scheduling 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.
I schedule blocks of time for certain over-arching projects, and then pull out that specific projects TODO list when my calendar tells me.
Gives me an excellent balance of rigidness and flexibility. :)
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#26Asana 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?
No, because, (and this is the trick for me) adding tasks and subtasks and planning is a completely separate activity and headspace. When I am doing that, I am in planning mode and I don't imagine how much it will suck to do a task. Just plan.
Then when I do, I just do.
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#27This sounds a lot like what Tom Limoncelli has been recommending in "Time Management for System Administrators"
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596007836.do
It takes real discipline to implement but you get a better control of your life if you do.
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#28Hasn't the Harvard Business Review ever read the book "Getting Things Done?"
Anyone serious about managing their time is familiar with each of these problems and develops their To-Do list with these complexities in mind.
The To-Do list is dead. Long live the To-Do list.
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#29TODO lists certainly can work. I use 2 levels of lists, a long-term list and daily lists. If a daily item isn't finished in a day I copy it into the next day's log entry at the end of the day. I've been doing it like this for around 7 or 8 years now. I combine this with my daily log (vim text file) to track what I've done and what I should be doing.
I don't use the lists to tell me exactly how to do things, but as a way to track what I to be looking at next. I also have status symbols for items. ! means important, P for when a patch has been sent for review but not pushed upstream and X for complete .
Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work
#30Scheduling 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.
This is exactly what the article is advocating:
> The alternative to the feckless to-do list is what
> I call “living in your calendar.”