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To-Do Lists Don't Work

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Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#61

Post by caw »

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.

> did not motivate or give a good feeling.

I use pen/paper todos. It feels great when I can cross one off.

If something is too large, I break out the task underneath, so I can see the larger goal I'm trying to accomplish but still have workable chunks.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#62

Post by timedoctor »

All of the "problems" that he listed of to do lists are solved by using the "Getting things done" method from David Allen.

I personally hate the method of blocking off tasks in a calendar because it is: a) Not agile (can't adjust your priorities quickly). So you get sick one day then you have to adjust your entire calendar for the next month? b) Very cumbersome and totally not suited to the concept of lists of things to do.

To do lists are perfect for storing information about what you might do in the future. You can create various lists to hold information, so that you don't have to constantly try and remember it. Then each day you prioritize and figure out which tasks you are actually going to work on. The point of the to do list is not to create a list of tasks that you are absolutely going to work on necessarily. Instead it's a way to store information and then jog your memory when you decide what you are going to prioritize and actually work on.

So overall I think the idea of forcing yourself to plan ahead of time exactly what you are going to do several days in advance is a horrible idea and very ineffective. What if something more important comes up on the day? You get a call from Techcrunch that they would like to feature your app. Sorry Techcrunch you're not on my calendar.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#63

Post by lucisferre »

Aside from using my inbox like a traditional "inbox" (things stay there until they done and/or are no longer relevant) I started using a pen and paper and a bullet journal (http://www.bulletjournal.com/) and it works amazingly well. I organize my month, week, day (every morning) keep track of appointments and write meeting notes all there. It's helped me keep track of the little things and make sure they don't fall though the cracks.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#64

Post by TillE »

chimeracoder wrote: post #45
darkxanthos wrote: post #37

I use Omnifocus which mixes the concepts of projects, todo lists, and calendar scheduling together into a very flexible package. I don't like that all my data is in a proprietary format but it's the only tool that's helped me get my chaotic business life under control.

> I don't like that all my data is in a proprietary format but it's the only tool that's helped me get my chaotic business life under contr I really wish there were a good task management system that: 1) Supported GTD 2) Is cross-platform (or has an open API). I've hacked together my own with a combination of my own scripts and the Toodledo API, but their web UI is pretty bad (and even their API is annoying to work w…

I find Evernote works well enough for lightweight GTD. I don't really want anything more than a bunch of lists I can see anywhere, and Evernote does that. It would be better if it natively supported the concept of a "task", but that's not necessary.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#65

Post by FrankenPC »

Yeah...I don't see how any engineer in any field can be effective without ongoing task documentation. Let's say that you have an eidetic memory and you don't need any to-do lists..I bet you also have problems letting go at night which may be interrupting your sleep. One way I've found to fix this is to-do lists! Not huge ones. Not complicated ones. Just one small page by your bedside. Each night, think of everything you need to get done tomorrow and put it on paper. Then excuse yourself from having to worry about it and go to sleep.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#66

Post by zokiboy »

timedoctor wrote: post #62

All of the "problems" that he listed of to do lists are solved by using the "Getting things done" method from David Allen. I personally hate the method of blocking off tasks in a calendar because it is: a) Not agile (can't adjust your priorities quickly). So you get sick one day then you have to adjust your entire calendar for the next month? b) Very cumbersome and totally not suited to the concept of lists of things…

No, it that case you will check your calendar and decide based on your priorities in life do you want to reschedule a task you have planned with the new task. With calendar-based systems you usually only plan the current day and for other days you have rough outline how time will be spent.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#67

Post by Karunamon »

jt2190 wrote: post #51
Karunamon wrote: post #41

Can we get "(for me)" added to the topic here? There's no such thing as an organizational system that works (or doesn't work) for every person out there. I personally use Taskwarrior[1] for work (because I'm in the terminal all the time anyways), and aside from a couple of edge cases, it's the simplest and most effective thing I've found. Our group uses a JIRA[2] instance that I've customized the heck out of to make…

> Our group uses a JIRA[2] instance that I've customized > the heck out of to make an effective "This is what needs > done, grab this if you have any spare time" system. The > motto is "No ticky, no worky" - anybody doing anything > work related generates a ticket for it. Understand that the system you've created implies that someone else has decided that the work is worth doing, someone else has broken the work down…

Ah, I should probably give more detail there. We operate on a kind of tiering system, technicians, sysadmins, and engineers. Sysadmins and engineers are generally the ones entering tickets, and the technicians the ones working them. Generally, but not always. It works as a good reminder system too for all kinds of assorted tasks that would be easily forgotten.

I think you've made a bad assumption in that only one or two people are breaking down projects into smaller tasks - that's not the way the software is set up, and it's not the way it works in practice for us. Anyone can assign subjobs to any main job, and this happens on a pretty regular basis.

The major bonus is that it allows management to see who has the least amount of stuff they're working on and allocate time effectively. When you've got north of 20 people being managed by 2, and you can tell at a glance who has more free time, I don't think the utility of this can be overstated. It definitely makes our lives easier, and I'd like to think it helps the company make money, but I don't have a good way to quantify that.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#68

Post by girvo »

chimeracoder wrote: post #45
darkxanthos wrote: post #37

I use Omnifocus which mixes the concepts of projects, todo lists, and calendar scheduling together into a very flexible package. I don't like that all my data is in a proprietary format but it's the only tool that's helped me get my chaotic business life under control.

> I don't like that all my data is in a proprietary format but it's the only tool that's helped me get my chaotic business life under contr I really wish there were a good task management system that: 1) Supported GTD 2) Is cross-platform (or has an open API). I've hacked together my own with a combination of my own scripts and the Toodledo API, but their web UI is pretty bad (and even their API is annoying to work w…

I actually began work on that at one point, but decided to stop as "no-one needs another To-do app" -- that said, I'm yet to come across a truly cross-platform GTD app that actually works nicely...

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#69

Post by shn »

officemonkey wrote: post #28

Hasn'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.

All these articles are written to market something, in this case the author himself.

Re: To-Do Lists Don't Work

#70

Post by officemonkey »

dhimes wrote: post #57
tifareth wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shocking, isn't it? But he goes on to describe GTD concepts that would make TODOs meaningful as if he is the original source of said ideas.

Most of the ideas are quite old- possibly enough to be considered 'public domain.' From Daytimers systems to 'getting organized' self-help books, these things have been around since at least the 1970s.

This article says some of this stuff is as old as Benjamin Franklin. http://www.inc.com/ss/brief-history-time-management#0
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