
How Writing To-Do Lists Helps Your Brain - prostoalex
https://www.fastcompany.com/3063392/your-most-productive-self/how-writing-to-do-lists-helps-your-brain-even-when-you-dont-comple
======
ktamura
Over the years, I've tried many digital to-do lists, including one I wrote
myself. Today, I just use a notebook.

The trick that I made work is to have two to-do lists: daily and quarterly.

For daily, it's simple. I have a variation of the Bullet Journal [1], but
interleaved with meeting notes, ideas, etc.

But many ideas are bigger than what you can accomplish/benchmark on a daily
basis. For those, I have two pages per quarter that I fill with "quarterly
goals". I try to keep the list under 20-30 items and keep them high-level.
Every week, I look at the same two pages and make sure that I am making
progress toward them. If not, I go back to my daily notes and see if I worked
on the right stuff the previous week. This is a variation on the idea that I
stole from Aaron Levie [2].

For me, the tactile/tangible nature of paper note-taking, as well as its
flexibility in formatting, has been incredibly useful.

[1] [http://bulletjournal.com/](http://bulletjournal.com/)

[2] [https://www.fastcompany.com/3021586/most-productive-
people-b...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3021586/most-productive-people-box-
aaron-levie)

~~~
rasur
The Bullet Journal looks interesting, but to me it feels much more like it
_should_ be a tablet app, than in a physical notebook (mainly due to migration
of items, but this is of course achievable with an erasable pen or pencil).

I say this as someone that is trying to use a physical notebook more & better,
and looking for good organisational/notekeeping schemes.

~~~
zump
An app never works for productivity stuff.

~~~
rasur
My issue is latency from _idea in head_ to adequately captured somewhere.

A book is usually open in front of me with a pen at the ready. An
application.. well it depends, but best-case scenario is that it's in a easy-
to-switch-to window and is natural to just get the idea down without jumping
through hoops.

As an aside from a sufferer of ADHD, I think Augmented Reality tech would be a
killer platform for an in-place TODO/Note/Reminder/assistant.

~~~
jasonkostempski
A small boost to that workflow is the ability to unlock and launch apps in one
swipe but that still leaves the power button, optional pin, and never being
quite sure what state the app will resume in. Edit: Forgot to include the
animations that run slower than my hand can move.

------
Ayaz
No application I've ever tried has worked for me in the sense that I felt it
an indispensable part of my life. In almost all instances, after a few days, I
always kept forgetting to use the application. Plus, the overhead of using
applications seemed to appear significant overtime.

I am now successfully down to a good fountain pen and a clear notebook. It is
also part of my strategy to break my device-addiction, which is bordering on
insanity. Where I used to take in my laptop to meetings and use mind maps and
others for taking down notes and ideas discussed, I only simply carry my
notebook -- my pen is usually in my shirt's front pocket.

I have rediscovered the love for handwriting, which I had all through my
childhood and teenage years. I had a beautiful cursive handwriting and could
write fast, which I gave up when I joined university in favour of a more
mechanical style, and soon thereafter, gave up on writing completely. I have
started writing in cursive again, and it makes for my ability to take down
notes very fast in a handwriting that looks good.

The only real grievance I have is when I want my notes to be available to
others. In those cases, I do wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have
typed them down in the first place (I'm a fast typist). But, it is a small
price I'm happily willing to pay.

~~~
tdkl
> In almost all instances, after a few days, I always kept forgetting to use
> the application.

That's why the success is in building habits. It doesn't matter what
medium/tool, but the initial habit building process must take place.

~~~
nnnnnande
Wouldn't it be possible that the tool might also influence the difficulty in
building said habit? If different tools require you to exert varying levels of
mental effort only to remember to use them, then then medium/tool might
matter.

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emdeha
Over the years, I've switched between several daily TODO lists. I used a plain
sticky note in the beginning where I outlined all the tasks I had to do. After
that I used Steven Covey's time management matrix, but I found that I'm not
using all of its quadrants and some _important and urgent_ tasks were never
done on time. Currently I have a TODO list with two columns -- Making, for the
long-term things I have to provide substantial amount of undivided attention
to; and POSS (projects, organization, skills, social) -- for tasks which
require frequent context-switching. It was greatly inspired by Paul Graham's
"Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule" article [1].

For long-term plans, I keep a simple text file categorized by projects where I
plan ahead for about one or two weeks and put deadlines for my plans. I derive
these plans from my long-term goals, for which I store the big picture in
various mediums (Trello, E-mails, text files, written conversations, paper,
etc.)

[1]
[http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html)

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NhanH
I've found out recently that rather than being something you make or plan,
TODO list is the end result of doing something else. Specifically, it's the
result of taking notes about your life and your works, TODO list is just what
left after you filter out all the actionable items.

For example, when I'm doing development work, I'm trying to keep a journal of
what I'm doing, why I'm doing something, which step of the task I'm on, what
the boss wanted to get done. With those info, when I get back to work
tomorrow, it's simple to get back the "TODO item" in the task.

The difference being that a list of TODO things on its own is pretty hard to
follow through and act: it's missing context (or the action is too vague), we
tend to have certain routine anyway and an ordered list of everything isn't
helpful since there is a limited number of tasks we can do at a certain
context. There are some productivity that tries to fix the missing context
problem by assigning context with a task, but they just amplify another issue
when making todo list: it's not that simple to write an actionable item. At
least 90% of the time I've tried, my item always ends up being broken down to
several more items when I started working on them, or I'm missing the mark on
planning the item. And they're always because I'm not in the mindset of a task
when I'm making its TODO items -- I plan things at the start or end of week/
day, rather than when I'm actually doing the task.

I think TODO list is just a special kind of notes, and I think a lot of people
would benefit from taking more notes about their lives, both for the past
(journal) and future (planning). Although "past" and "future" is a bit of an
unnecessary distinction here.

Don't make to-do list, just take more notes, write things down. You will
notice all the bullet point in the article would apply if you change "writing
to-do lists" into "taking notes".

Just a tangent, but that's also why I think org-mode is the only note-
taking/to-do app that did it right: TODO item is both part of the normal
notes, and well supported with multitude of features around it (all the agenda
functionalities).

~~~
tonyedgecombe
"I think TODO list is just a special kind of notes, and I think a lot of
people would benefit from taking more notes about their lives, both for the
past (journal) and future (planning)."

I think this is a really good point, in fact if I look at my TODO lists many
if not most of the items get added after I complete them.

------
caseysoftware
And you should purge it occasionally.

With Trello, I use the "card aging" feature to see which things haven't been
updated or moved recently. Each week, I spend five minutes skimming through
the cards, making sure there are due dates if applicable.

At the end of each month, I spend closer to 20 minutes and look at each card
and ask "is this still relevant?" and give it a simple yes/no. If it's "no" I
delete it immediately.

Those never-ending tasks and wish lists simply go away. It's not like I was
going to do them anyway _and_ it's less junk on the list.

I do the same for meetings. _None_ of my recurring meetings/tasks extend past
December 31st. After the January 1st, I double check to see which ones I
really need and are still relevant and recreate those. The others are already
done.

~~~
qznc
I wonder if some manual bookkeeping is necessary to develop a habit and give
room for introspection/reflection?

Currently, I use Wunderlist and I have weekly lists. At the end of the week
there is the manual process: create list for the next week and move everything
left from this week over. Then I quickly look through the done items of the
week.

I also have lists for long term and recurring items, but the process does not
really work well. I forget them, they get outdated, etc.

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asadjb
This first few sentences of this article describe almost exactly how I've been
feeling lately:

    
    
      For a long time, I resisted to-do lists. I wanted the flexibility. I felt that if I kept a list, it would tie me down to a particular set of tasks. Gradually, though, I came around. The busier my work life became, the more crucial it was to have some sort of running agenda on hand.
    

It was embarrassing after a few times when I kept forgetting important tasks,
and that pushed me towards using a todo list manager at work.

Being a developer who works almost exclusively in a terminal, I settled for
using TaskWarrior (TW). I can't recommend it enough for people who spend most
of their time in a CLI. I tried a bunch of different options before I found
TW, and my biggest problem with anything else was the added friction and
mental context switch involved in switching to another app to add a task.

Now I'm looking for something more, a task manager that works everywhere.
Especially for longer projects and goals, something I can use for my personal
life. While TW is great for the CLI, it lacks apps for the desktop and mobile
(OS X and iOS). I've settled to using Wunderlist for now, which is the best
option I could find for myself, but I'd love something that works as well as
TW for the desktop and mobile, which for me is just entering tasks as a single
line of text and having meta data like due date, project, categorization, etc
picked out automatically (which Wunderlist does for dates but not
categorization).

And one very important thing I've felt a couple of days ago when I moved to
Wunderlist for my personal stuff is that at least for me it makes me feel more
relaxed as well. I had a bad day a while back where I was in a panic because I
had a _lot_ of things to do personally and I didn't seem to be getting
anywhere with any of those tasks. I sat down for about 30 minutes and just
created tasks for everything. Since then I feel a lot easier. While I may not
have made any progress on the tasks, just knowing they are written down
somehow makes me feel better.

~~~
DiabloD3
When I last used Wunderlist, I really disliked how inflexible it was, and how
bad it was at handling recurring tasks.

I discovered Todoist shortly after, and stuck with it.

I think for me, personally, to get anything even more productive, I'd have to
write it myself.

~~~
asadjb
Writing something myself is an idea I have brewing in the back of my mind. But
it's not something I have any clear ideas about. I have no idea how it should
work, only a vague idea that it should be as seamless to my daily routine as
TaskWarrior is right now.

But I'm trying to collect notes on how I use Wunderlist and TaskWarrior. Maybe
in a few months I'll have a better idea of my usage patterns and then I can
come up with something that I'd love to use everywhere.

Do you have any ideas on what you'd like to write yourself? I could get ideas
off of you. :)

~~~
DiabloD3
Unlimited priority levels (as opposed to just 4), more cohesive project
parenting (I can parent projects, but Todoist sometimes won't list items from
child projects if I ask for the parent in some areas but not others), and
probably exchange Todoist's query language for straight up SQL ala JPQL-esque
usage.

Other than that, Todoist gets very little wrong (and they're constantly
polishing the more mundate UX parts, which is also an important part of any
frequently used app).

Their team has been often very responsive to my requests, and have also been
working on integrations into other services (which is often a sore spot for
'cloud' services).

------
varlock
Interesting that no one has mentioned Google Keep - it works for me, mostly
because it's available for both Android and IOS and as a web service. I have
to admit syncing is not always perfect, though. Just curious, any particular
reason why others don't mention it?

~~~
userchris
I use Keep, and it's become a pretty central part of my life over the last
year or so. I never stuck with any other to-do apps- either they were way too
extensive (Evernote) or not flexible enough (Wanderlist, Google tasks, Any.do,
etc). I like Keep because it lets me store random notes that I need access to
during the year (books I want to read, workout lists), to do lists that are
transient (a shopping list, recipes), and to do lists that need to stick
around for a while (Personal Goals for September). Something about having all
that just displayed on one scrollable screen works really well with my mindset
where other apps feel tedious and unhelpful.

------
aprdm
Every day before leaving work I make a todo list of what I am going to work on
the next day, crossing the list as I get them done in the next day.

10 mins before leaving work I do the same.

Works really well, gives a good sense of progress, offloads thinking about
work when I am home and etc.

------
wineisfine
I noticed a certain point, experimenting with todo lists and productivity
apps, became a thing of its own. Tweaking Omnifocus to perfection, for
example.

I threw them all out and am using a reporters notebook (which is a good
format, btw), with daily todos and this is the system that sticks.

I guess this is what it really boils down to: which system is naturally easy
to stick to in the long run?

I guess it's the same for sports, diets, etc

------
peter303
When I was in my 20s I could hold my daily ToDo lists entirely in my memory.
This was useful for tracking coding features and bugs. Somewhat older now, I
do this with a legal pad.

------
newman314
I spent a lot of time context switching (lots of roles, go-to guy for fixing
things) so lists are a key tool in keeping me sane.

I've tried many things over the years but settled on Quip. The availability of
the app on many platforms (mobile, desktop) means I can pretty much take notes
anywhere (except the shower; I have pen and paper for that and transfer it to
Quip later).

The shared notebook functionality allows me to easily organize my thoughts and
share with others as necessary. This works for both short lists and longer
documents. For example, I've built a fairly extensive document on HTTPS
configs and best practices over time just by filling things in as I go along.

No relationship to Quip. Just a very happy user.

~~~
chambo622
My company uses Quip and I'm very happy with it as well. Thinking of moving
some of my personal notes and lists from Keep over to Quip. Although I'd give
Keep the leg up for simple, quick notes on mobile (and their predictive entry
for grocery lists is fantastic)

------
winkle
I'd say this article accurately describes my organizing. I'll start a todo
list in Evernote when I get too many tasks. I'll knock of the highest
priorities and the rest get forgotten because they weren't "really" important.
After a week or two I create another todo list when new "high priority" items
come up.

If no one is asking for something to be done, it wasn't really that important
in the first place. I have hundreds of todo lists that are unfinished and I'll
never do them. But, if someone does ask me for that a year later it just goes
on the new todo list.

------
puddintane
I combine this method with a LiveScribe Echo smartpen (Sky edition). This
allows me to backup my notes via wireless but also keeps the human pen + paper
touch to the notes.

I feel as though I remember things a lot better when I write them down versus
typing.

I originally picked up one of these pens for college and it helped a ton with
staying on track in class and always having a backup of the lecture that
sync'd in an animation to my notes (so i could either play the notes back, or
tap at a location and begin playing back from that point).

They have various versions but I would only recommend the Echo or the Sky -
the version 3 in my experience only connected to the mobile apps, so on
windows/mac you were not able to view your notes (very annoying). However the
Sky (Echo with wifi sync) and Echo allowed me to sync the notes to a desktop
app which allowed me to export pdf's. I hope they open up PC support for the 3
but after two or so years it looks as though they will never add that as a
usable platform.

------
vram22
Interesting thread.

Wondering if anyone here has tried using shorthand, a.k.a. stenography, for
to-do lists?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthand](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthand)

I remember people using it much earlier, and it was offered in a neighborhood
typing class I took as a kid. Plus, had seen books about it then.

~~~
andai
You may be interested in Quikscript, a writing system inspired by shorthand
and intended to replace the messy English writing system.

~~~
vram22
Cool! Will check it out, thanks.

------
gglitch
I feel like I've used it all - apps, plaintext, files+dirs, taskwarrior, ad
hoc paper, bullet journal, org mode. I've used org mode many times over
several years, but it only clicked for me as a system when I recently started
using its capture templates and agenda views. If org-mode could be described
as a system built on Emacs, it feels to me like task management with custom
capture templates and custom agenda views is sort of a system built on org-
mode. That probably makes it sound unnecessarily complicated, but it's
actually extremely simple, fast, and reliable. I'm still using Apple's
Reminders to remind me at 0900, 1245, and 1600 to actually check in with my
system, but the system itself is working beautifully.

------
ourmandave
My paper to-do list is only immediate things (e.g. pick up 'script, dog to
vet). Everything else is on the calendar (with reminders) and gets moved to
the list when it's time.

~~~
garrickvanburen
Anything non-trivial, I put on my calendar. In addition to telling me 'what' I
should be doing, it also tells me 'when' I should be doing it. I've found
knowing 'when' \- no matter how arbitrarily declared - is huge for preventing
things from continuing to haunt me.

------
taeric

        > To-do lists get a lot of flack, 
        > but the simple act of planning 
        > has some psychological and 
        > productivity benefits all 
        > by itself.
    

My problem is that TODO lists are not necessarily a solid basis for planning.
Specifically, they are often only good for easy plans.

~~~
TheDrizzle43
If I don't write tasks in a TODO list I get anxious I'll forget about it
forever. Even if I don't plan on doing a task anytime soon I like to jot it
down so I have the freedom to forget about it.

~~~
tkjef
Exactly this. It has been written to disk, and now your mind is free to
compute away and use as much memory as possible for new things.

------
tdkl
Until making To-Do lists (not to mention evaluating different software, mobile
apps, techniques) is just another way to procrastinate.

The best To-Do list is the one that gets you do the thing, even if this means
not ever writing/using one.

------
thewhitetulip
I wrote a to do list manager
[https://github.com/thewhitetulip/Tasks](https://github.com/thewhitetulip/Tasks)

------
perseusprime11
I always create a list of things I did and that somehow helps me reflect on
things I may have missed or could have done better. Not exactly a todo list
but it works for me.

