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To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
61–70 of 79 posts
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#62I use a simple version of a TO-DO list. I have a email folder ACTION, and mails with a subject prefix of TODO are moved there with an auto-rule. My wife also adds reminders to the TODO list as required.
This works well for me; I have weekly timesheet and billing to do, and it keeps track of where I am in the workflow. An automated job on my server mails me the weekly tasks required in the subject, and I delete each mail as the task is complete. For example my weekly automated tasks are
TODO: create invoice
TODO: add invoice to finance spreadsheet
TODO: complete timesheet
TODO: save approved timesheet
TODO: mail invoice and timesheet to customer
TODO: confirm scheduled payment received
TODO: perform weekly backup
TODO: CAR1 check oil
TODO: CAR1 tyre pressures
TODO: CAR1 water jet reservoir
TODO: CAR2 check oil
TODO: CAR2 tyre pressures
TODO: CAR2 water jet reservoir
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#63I've been trying having 2 lists. One I call the bucket, where I have things I need to do but don't know when yet. And the other is for things I need to do today. So when today is depleted I pull stuff from the bucket. The only challenge here is putting realistic tasks for the 'today' list. I've noticed that I can only put like 2 or 3 max to actually make this work. The best part of making a very short list is that yo…
That sounds a bit like the Next Actions and the Someday/Maybe lists of Getting Things Done by Dave Allen. You might want to look into that. I love it!
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#64This is a repeat of the famous Getting Things Done book, which covers prioritizing your life through organization and scheduling.
>This is a repeat of the famous Getting Things Done book, which covers prioritizing your life through organization and scheduling. Pretty much the opposite! David Allen is against scheduling anything other than hard deadlines. The ones which if you miss, you really miss! The examples in the article are the ones he tells you never to put in the calendar (groceries, date night, etc). Anything that you can delay means i…
I agree, this is the opposite of Getting Things Done. I've been using the GTD method (quite obsessively) for about a year now and I love it. I've got clean workspace where everything is waiting for me to do stuff. I have a system of lists categorized by Next Actions, Someday/Maybe, Projects and so on. Both digitally and with paper.
When I saw the title I was surprised. And my experiences are quite the opposite of what I'm reading in the article. My life improved a lot by using lists.
The problem of having to guess how long stuff takes and the cascading effect of constantly having to reschedule everything was very depressing for me.
Nowadays I'm doing the important stuff from the Next Actions list and do something from the Someday/Maybe list for fun. And my calendar and reminders make sure I do the time critical stuff at the time it needs to be done.
This article sounds insane to me.
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#65The problem with using calendars is actually you're pretty flexible about when you want to get most stuff done, you just have a deadline. But you don't want to do it at the last minute, so for a weekend task you want to check in a few times to see if you are not too busy to do it.
http://www.dueapp lets you put a time to be reminded and that has really clear snooze functionality. So I procrastinate a lot (snooze) but I'm always aware of it in case I have a deadline, and I don't have to worry about remember it.
(I'm unaffiliated with Due I just love the product)
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#66The same old thing peope talk about thousands of time. This is just a marketing article to promote the $59 seminar: https://www.bewaymoreproductive.com
Came to the comments to post this, so thanks for beating me to it.
Any time someone says they have "the secret," they are selling you something. And more often than not, there's a good amount of snake oil in that bottle.
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#67A hybrid of TODO, scheduling and contextual seems to work best for me. I'm using Nozbe and it's about perfect: http://nozbe.com/a-jasoncomely
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#68My personal experience is 100% in line with this, and it's beyond me why none of the major todo list apps feature drag & drop calendar integration. I'm reluctantly using Things, and the closest thing it has is due dates and "hide this task until that date". Surely, it wouldn't be that hard to implement a daily planner view that brings up your day's calendar in the right pane, a list of upcoming tasks in the left one,…
Fantastical 2 is the only good solution I've been able to find for both calendaring and reminders. It lacks many of the features of OmniFocus but I find the trade-off to be worthwhile.
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#69The same old thing peope talk about thousands of time. This is just a marketing article to promote the $59 seminar: https://www.bewaymoreproductive.com
Came to the comments to post this, so thanks for beating me to it. Any time someone says they have "the secret," they are selling you something. And more often than not, there's a good amount of snake oil in that bottle.
Life hack: grab the important bits from the comments and skimming the post here.
Re: To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
#70That’s how the most successful people use lists … under a specific time block.
Wow, talk about a spectacular exaggeration.