
To-Do Lists Don't Work - xav
http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/01/to-do-lists-dont-work/
======
Karunamon
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
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. We've got shell aliases hooked into the web
service, so anybody can just do a command like:

    
    
      ja awesomeproject 'Finish work on the gonkulator' inprogress
    

For home and personal, I'm a fan of Any.do[3], it's a Chrome webapp and native
Android app. The Chrome app lives in a button on the top bar for easy access,
the Android app stays in the notification pane and shows what you should be
doing next, and it has this feature called Moment where it runs you through
your pending tasks once a day, and you mark them as done, to do today, or to
do later. Great way to make sure you keep visibility on stuff.

    
    
        [1]: http://taskwarrior.org
        [2]: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
        [3]: http://any.do

~~~
corresation
_Can we get "(for me)" added to the topic here?_

Such a disclaimer (or rather "for some people") could be added to almost every
lifehack / productivity tip / work habit / fitness technique / etc.

Work at home / in the office / in the cafe / for yourself / in a team / pair
programming / standing desks / morning walks / coffee brewing / IDE tools /
soylent / fasting / feasting / work-life balance / pretty much everything
else.

People make absolute statements of universal truth to pitch their confidence
and certainty, but really it seldom applies to more than a small subset.

~~~
sanderjd
(I think) This is similar to how you could preface nearly any statement you
make anywhere with "I think". My instinct is to qualify everything and I often
have to go back and delete the qualification because it pointlessly weakens
every sentence. Either that or I notice it after I've already written and
cringe at re-reading it
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6457261](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6457261)).
(I think) It is usually better to let your readers decide which statements are
subjective and which are objective.

~~~
ekianjo
Well the problem of not mentioning "I think" is when you pretend that "X does
not work" while 99% of your peers use it and do not seem to have a significant
problem with it. Then the statement makes more sense if you phrase it "X does
not work for me" or "You may like X but I don't", since it would then seem
that you are a very unique person with a very unique problem.

If you had this kind of statement in other fields, like "Gaming on Consoles is
broken", no doubt you'd get tons of people saying that this is wrong, because
obviously millions of people have no problem with it.

Making such absolute statements is akin to trolling.

------
nadaviv
I'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](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).

[1]
[https://gist.github.com/shesek/5185168](https://gist.github.com/shesek/5185168)

~~~
1qaz2wsx3edc
Funny, I use Trello in a similar manor.

Columns: Ideas -> Planned -> In Progress -> Deployed -> Client Review -> Done
(week of x)

Ideas is: for new stories, unaccepted work.

Planned is: for stories the client has accepted as work.

In progress is: for work being currently worked on (also doubles as time
tracking).

Deployed is: for stories that have been completed (tested & deployed).

Client Review is: for stories that the client has chosen to accept.

Done is for tracking completed work for that week, a new column is created at
the start of the week.

Other conventions used are: Cards are in order, top of the list is the high
priority. Blue label for blocked cards, orange for unconfirmed issues, red for
confirmed issues.

Another thing used is Trello Points for estimations (a chrome plugin).

~~~
read
I would be interested to learn more about how people use Trello for personal
use.

------
kabdib
I usually keep a local "todo" list in each project I'm on. It helps me focus,
and if I'm away from a project for a while it helps me figure out what I've
done (I seldom remove old entries, as it gives me a sense of history).

Like most processes, it's better to keep something like this lightweight.
"Nested todos" are about as fancy as things get.

I also check the todo lists into the project. Sure, it makes things a little
dirty. On the other hand, it saved another person's bacon last year when I was
forced to flip ownership of a project over to that person without much
warning. (He discovered the todo list, and emailed me a huge thanks).

Todo lists in a wiki can work well to keep a loose team on the same track,
too. Again I think the secret is to keep this lightweight.

If you're installing "Whizzy Enterprise TODO" servers or having meetings about
how to manage todo items or trying to extract metrics from todo lists, my
guess is that you've put too much drama into the process and should take a
walk to cool off. :-)

~~~
xerophtye
exactly! todo lists help ALOT. I usually use trello for this. It really helps
me remember on monday what i was doing on friday and what needs to get done.
None of the complains in the article make sense to me. When i make a todo
list, i usually have a sense of direction so I dont get stuck in the "choices
choices" problem. Besides, didn't anyone teach you how to prioritize stuff?
"Urgent, Important; Important, not urgent; Urgent, not important; not
important not urgent;"

Oh and trello really helps me enter a TON of information into a task so i dont
face the "they all look the same on paper" issue. heck i even use the comments
feature as status updates to keep logging whatever i am doing on the task.
Todo lists are great! (or atleast they are for me. especially trello)

~~~
read
What do you do when you don't have a sense of direction?

I wish a todo list would make me do things I wouldn't _dare_ do. Like things
you don't usually write in a todo list.

~~~
kabdib
I have a higher-level "ideas.txt" file. It looks a lot like my TODO list:

Things to learn

Things to read

Stuff I'd like to do

I visit it every few weeks. There are entries from 25 years ago that I haven't
touched, and probably never will. This year I checked off [x] Learn Python for
Real, and a few other things I won't share. (Haskell is probably one of those
things that will remain unchecked, until I find a project for it).

------
nhebb
I understand what the author is trying to say, and I've been in that situation
where I've mixed small tasks with short and long term projects. I've tried a
number of things over the years, but a todo list created with pencil and paper
is the most effective way for me to manage my work. It is not a motivational
tool. It's not a project management tool. It's simply a task tracking system
with very low overhead. Everyone's different, but todo lists do work for me if
the items are scoped properly and prioritized.

~~~
prottmann
I agree. We try many tools in our small team, but the main problem was, that
we had to fill in simple steps or small problems and for that were all tools
to complicated. Effect: after a short while nobody use them.

We come back to paper and whiteboard. For own simple tasks we use paper. For
team tasks we use a simple whiteboard nearby the coffee machine ;-)

But after a while we had the problem that nobody see what the others have done
(end up with too much talking -> waste of time).

We decide an another approach, we didn't write todos, but we write about what
we have done. Advert ;-) We create [http://teamspir.it](http://teamspir.it) to
write a log about the daily work.

Effect: Everybody knows what the team member have done and why, because we
write our sight of view about the things we have done. Positive effect was,
that we review our work and look what we do right or wrong.

For me it is very motivating to write at the end of the week about all things
i have done. It give me a better feeling about how many things are finished.
Normally i have a wrong memory about that and i think "Oh god, i did not do
anything this week", but this is wrong, when you reflect your work, you see
how much you have done.

------
officemonkey
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.

~~~
tifareth
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.

~~~
dhimes
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.

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

------
tifareth
TODO lists -don't- work? Maybe they'd work with some mindfulness, context and
discipline? The author acts as if David Allen's "Getting Things Done" did not
exist. GTD calls for all these things and, at the most basic level, you're
tasked with assigning priority to, creating context outlines for and
estimating time commitment for all of your tasks during the first time block
in your morning.

GTD became well-known because it works. You just have to take the book
seriously enough to both finish and internalize it. Difficult, perhaps, for
many in the information-age [quick-fix-age]. GTD is a lifestyle versus a
system. That's the only way it works.

Software: org-mode is what I use and it's amazing. You can create massive
collapsable lists with TODOs, outlines, context with code-blocks that can be
set to any language, direct links to files/emails/websites/almost-anything.
It's versatility and scope is so enormous that it can be adapted to suite any
conceivable need. Like scheduling? Go to a TODO item and CTRL-s (C-s for you
fellow emacs users) and a calendar pops up. Select a date, hit enter and it's
agenda'd. The agenda can be set up to send you reminders via iCal,
Growl/libnotify/Snarl, appointment-mode, Remind, Google Calendar...
practically anything!

The problem with these brilliant systems is the initial time commitment where
there are no pats on the back (no insta-grata) and no payout of any kind.
They're both intricate systems that work like a circuit - if the circuit isn't
complete, it is broken.

Excellent org-mode guide: [http://doc.norang.ca/org-
mode.html](http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html)

------
jacquesm
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.

~~~
prottmann
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.

~~~
jacquesm
Yes, when you finish todos you have more new todos. That's the nature of life,
it has nothing to do with the todos. If you don't feel like doing stuff, then
don't. If you do, use lists. Todo lists are positive because they also contain
the (usually invisible, but you can typically show them in most todo list
software) list of completed tasks and over time that list will get
impressively long, much longer than the one of stuff still to do.

People that are hard to motivate will be hard to motivate whatever tool or
gimmick you use. Don't blame the tool for that.

~~~
prottmann
Thats my experience too, if somebody don't want to use a tool, then it is
irrelevant if it is the best tool in the world.

------
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.

~~~
PeterisP
If you do lose one day, and everything is full, then you _do_ have to adjust
stuff anyway, and it forces you to do that.

You don't put things on calendar that you might do - you put things that you
will or must do then; and it is important that if something (like that
sickness) means that you won't be able to do all X things, then you can know
early and choose appropriately which one you won't do in the expected time.

Also, in your Techcrunch example - it makes you informed about the
consequences; if you get an option to do a large thing then you'll see what
other important things you will be displacing and is it really worth it
compared to those other tasks.

------
whiddershins
Asana 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 noticed I tend towards personal
scope-creep. I finish a task, but while doing it I add more tasks
semiconsciously. Then I never feel finished and I hate myself.

However, if I go back to my asana list, I can reality-check and realize I in
fact did accomplish the original task. Then I can consciously choose to
continue the new task or abandon it or add it to the list for later.

~~~
eatmyshardz
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?

~~~
whiddershins
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.

~~~
tifareth
This planning and review phase you describe is the first step in a GTD
workflow.

------
mistercow
Of all of these objections, only "heterogenous priority" and "Lack of
commitment devices" are unsolved by using a hierarchical to-do list.

Paradox of choice? Group your tasks into categories so that you can't see the
whole list at once.

Heterogenous complexity? Divide your tasks into subtasks so that everything is
ultimately broken down into roughly equal sized chunks.

Lack of context? Again, organize everything into sublists so that you _do_
have context. Put notes under the item if you need even more context.

Heterogeneous priority? This is just not a problem with to-do lists in the
first place. You have a reminder there, so take care of it before it becomes a
problem. If you need another tool _in addition_ to make sure you actually get
it done, that is not an indictment of to-do lists' inherent ineffectiveness.

As for the lack of commitment devices, this is again not some fatal blow to
to-do lists. To-do lists are not going to magically solve all of your
problems. You will need other tools and you will need to establish good habits
as well.

------
wildgift
Calendars work when other people are depending on your decisions, and it's
basically more important to make a decision than anything else. Everything is
driven by the need to make that decision. The decision may be imperfect, but
the overall system can tolerate that most of the time - and when it cannot, it
appears as a schedule problem.

Calendars fail when you need to perform labor to complete a piece of work, and
you don't know how long it'll take. A to-do list is a detailed list of tasks
to complete, generally in a specific order, to complete a piece of work. That
work is probably part of a larger piece of work. There are dependencies
between pieces of work. Times, if they exist in the to-do list, are generally
estimates.

The only way to put tasks into a calendar, if you want the calendar to reflect
reality, is to pad out each task with extra time. That way, the schedule
doesn't fail.

However, if you padded out your to-do list with enough extra time so you could
fit it into a calendar that could remain largely unchanged for the next
year... your productivity would be pretty low. It would be a pretty relaxing
job, however.

There are problems when these two different ways to organize work aren't
reconciled correctly. You have work crunches, where people are forced to work
late, or you have calendar failures where your obligations to outside parties
aren't met, or both.

Both are intolerable, and a sign of bad management.

------
thinkersilver
I use a hybrid approach of GTD for managing lists and the pomodoro technique (
a task time bucketing system) for execution of tasks. It works well for me.
GTD isn't perfect but it does cover many of the concerns that the author has
raised.

Using the GTD approach you can minimise the heterogenoous complexity, priority
and lack of context problems. Frequent reviews of your lists will mean that
your action lists contain work that has to be done, this helps to reduce the
effect of the heterogenous priority since you will tackle the tasks
sequentially (they will all have similar priorities). Most tasks that have a
high priority are not always urgent and can be planned. GTD and the pomodoro
technique both have mechanisms for dealing with urgent, high priority
interruptions.

I know my post isn't too clear if you are not too familiar with GTD and
pomodoro but I just want to briefly illustrate that there are a few approaches
out there to help.

1\. GTD ([http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-
chart...](http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart.html))
2\. Pomodor technique
([http://pomodorotechnique.com/](http://pomodorotechnique.com/)) 3\. Time
boxking
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing))

------
tunesmith
I have friends that swear by the calendar, but it doesn't work for me at all.
I tend to think in terms of dependencies - my plans and goals are basically
one big DAG. What's nice though is that you only have to focus on the nodes
that don't have edges pointing to them. I even use software for it; my life is
basically a graph.

~~~
teichman
Could you share with us what you use? I often feel the same way. Thanks.

~~~
tunesmith
Well I have a $250 piece of software called Flying Logic. I like it because it
automatically lays out the graph when you draw a new edge.

------
z92
Scheduling 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.

~~~
xerophtye
That somehow never works for me. Partially because when writing code you cant
always knw how long wil it take (issues come up all the time. debugging can
take a while especially if it's a big project and there is a lot of code
written by a lot of different people)

------
mkumm
I have never seen someone successfully guess at how long tasks will take and
use that as a method of planning. At some point you are dropping tasks off, or
adding them to your day which means you are still working with some
prioritization system. Save your calendar for time-critical events/tasks,
everything else is a list, hopefully prioritized.

------
alexschiff
The problems that the author mentions are behavioral problems not problems
with to do lists in general. Nothing is stopping someone from adding priority,
context, etc. To do lists in their simplest form are just a way to get it out
of your brain and in a real-world format so you don't forget them.

It's actually a really interesting time for people building software in this
space: [http://alexdschiff.com/post/58069189811/chaos-in-consumer-
pr...](http://alexdschiff.com/post/58069189811/chaos-in-consumer-
productivity). Lots of shut downs, fundraises, acquisitions and chaos that is
consolidating user bases in one of the most fragmented industries around.

I'm writing an essay on the subject right now, and I think the biggest
problems with productivity software come down to these three things:

1) It's not just your to do list. Most tools try to make arbitrary
distinctions between what is a "to do" vs. what is not when the way that most
people operate — and this is often a shocker to people that are into
productivity — is just "I need to write SOME thought down for SOME reason
LATER." For example, people might make a "note" that is just "Local Natives"
\- the name of a band. But isn't that representative of a task, "Check out
Local Natives"? The lines are blurry, and while most people keep track of
tasks in some way, they don't really "do" task management consciously.

2) No one is getting social right. On the one hand, there's Evernote, which
deliberately ignores social, and then there's email, which is a great way to
send things to people but a terrible way to keep track of things for the
recipient. In the middle there are collaboration tools, but any project
manager can tell you getting everyone to adopt a new system is heinous. IMO,
you need to start with and build around the individual first (like Evernote),
but tightly integrate a social layer to get those notes and to do's to other
people on top of it.

3) Now what? The author makes an important point about context. Note-taking
apps and to do lists have incredibly rich data about people that can be
leveraged to actually help deliver that context and guide people through the
next step. The next generation of productivity software will be less about
helping people stay organized and more about actually helping them execute and
get things done.

Disclaimer: I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company in this space called
Fetchnotes. We're gearing up to release a new version with the above 3 things
at the heart of our approach. If you're interested, get in touch:
alex(at)fetchnotes(dot)com.

------
jaredcwhite
I've been evolving towards a hybrid of the two approaches. I think To-Do lists
work much better when you also have "time buckets" scheduled on your calendar.
In other words, schedule time on your calendar in which you'll be able to
complete or at least partially work on specific tasks and then use that time
appropriately.

For example, instead of scheduling "write up a proposal for so-and-so",
schedule "work for so-and-so" and then writing up a proposal could be one of
several tasks needed for that project. Instead of scheduling "vacuum the
downstairs floor", schedule "House cleaning" and then that's just one of
several tasks you could do.

I find that when you schedule individual tasks, it gets crazy because some
things take more time and other things less time and pretty soon your life has
nothing to do with what you actually scheduled. (Which feels weird.) On the
other hand, if you just have a bunch of ToDos and your calendar is mostly
empty, you're going to be constantly feeling frazzled. A combination of the
two seems more ideal.

------
j21
I've found that having a "Done" list in addition to a todo-list works for me.

I have Trello as a todo list and used to use iDoneThis as my "Done" list. With
iDoneThis, all the projects and other stuff I was working on would get lumped
together. I wanted to be able to separate projects, but still be able to see
them all together in one feed.

I ended up making a web app to do this for myself and have been using it for
the past few months. Just decided to open it up for other people to use a few
weeks ago, so I've been collecting some emails. It's at
[https://jots.me](https://jots.me)

I have some beta users right now, so if anyone's interested in trying it out,
use this signup link for HN:
[https://jots.me/signup?code=hn5](https://jots.me/signup?code=hn5)

It gives you 5 "cards" (what would be calendars in iDoneThis) so you can
separate 5 different projects.

------
atsaloli
This sounds a lot like what Tom Limoncelli has been recommending in "Time
Management for System Administrators"

[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596007836.do](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.

------
glenra
The first reason given for _why_ to-do lists don't work is "the Paradox of
Choice". Alas, the studies claiming to _measure_ a _Paradox of Choice_ didn't
replicate and related followup studies have found roughly no effect of
additional options on the ability to choose. In a great many contexts, people
really _like_ having lots of options - it makes it easier to find the exact
thing they want. Maybe to-do lists is one of those.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2013/08/more-is-
mo...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2013/08/more-is-more-why-the-
paradox-of-choice-might-be-a-myth/278658/)

------
bcl
TODO 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 .

------
ams6110
_When your list comprises items of varying priorities, you tend to take care
of the “A” priorities and let the “C” priorities lie fallow…until it becomes
an “A” priority itself._

I had to re-read this three times to be sure I was getting it... his
contention is that sometimes a "C" priority is really more important than an
"A" priority???

The entire point of prioritization is that you do the most important stuff
first, and if you don't have time for everything, well at least the stuff that
didn't get done was not really the important stuff anyway.

~~~
mistercow
I had to reread it several times as well before I finally found a charitable
interpretation. What he's saying is that with a to-do list, it's easy to just
get all of the high priority stuff out of the way, and then when all you have
is low priority stuff, just to dick around for the rest of the day.

On the one hand, there's some validity to that point; most people can't
actually take care of every low priority item on a long term to-do list
immediately without burning out. Balancing that with still taking care of the
low priority items before they become crises can be difficult.

On the other hand, taking care of the A priorities and then ignoring the C
priorities altogether is _simply doing it wrong_. The author suggests putting
everything on a calendar instead of using to-do lists. I think this is dumb
reasoning. There's nothing stopping you from using _both_.

Put everything on the to-do list. Get your high priority stuff out of the way,
and then put the low priority stuff (or the stuff you have an ugh field
around) on your calendar. This is way more efficient, and leverages the
quickness of the to-do list to prevent you from accidentally forgetting
something entirely.

~~~
arjie
I believe he's talking about some prevention is better than cure sort of
thing. It's not important to get your car checked today because you have
important things to do. However, if this happens every day, then one day your
car is going to fail. Then, getting the car checked becomes a priority but if
you'd fit it in earlier on, you could have gotten away with never having to
deal with an emergency.

Essentially, he's talking about how we discount future risk when we prioritise
tasks.

------
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/](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.

------
taeric
This is just focusing on the list as an ends to itself. I have little doubt
that a list is not capable of "working." However, the among the many different
processes of creating and organizing a list, there are probably jewels that
help a ton of people. Oddly, these processes will be widely different for many
different people that all have similar artifacts. This is why some people will
say "to-do lists work for me" while someone with almost an exact replica list
will say "it just wasted my time."

------
zokiboy
I'm glad this is being shared, because I struggled for years with GTD and
couldn't find an alternative anywhere. When I started putting tasks in my
calendar my productivity skyrocketed. I know when things will get done and it
forces me to make tough choices. I have to decide what will get done, how much
time will it take and when, but also what WON'T get done and forces me to say
"no". We only have limited amount of time - the calendar makes it so clear.

This approach takes much practice to learn how much time everything takes,
self-discipline and flexibility when it takes more than planned. The end
result is much better control of personal time. Instead of just writing a next
action for each project and being anxious whenever I get a new project request
from a client whether I will have enough time to finish it by deadline; now, I
can estimate project and tell from my schedule when each project will be
finished.

To-do list has place in my system as either list of small tasks that I will do
in one block of scheduled time. Also, I use list as someday lists, for example
next books I will read. I still use some principles from GTD, but I no longer
have never-ending to-do lists that paralyse me. Calendar forces me to create a
realistic schedule.

This is not for everyone, and based by the popularity of GTD, I guess only
minority of people can live in their calendar and schedule almost every
activity. For those who are interested, I suggest starting with reading Peter
Bregman: 18 minutes and Julie Morgenstern: Time management.

------
TallboyOne
Don't be an idiot, I hate titles like this. Todo lists are one of the greatest
things ever invented, and I use them every single day. Tons of them. I revel
in them.

HN is such a great place except these ridiculous HERES AN INSANELY BROAD
GENERALIZATION THAT IM GOING TO TELL YOU IS BAD FOR YOU WHEN IT IS IN FACT
ONLY BAD FOR ME BECAUSE I DONT UNDERSTAND IT threads

------
kriro
I use a 1-2-3 system that works fairly well for all my work related tasks. One
main task, two medium ones and three small ones (guestimated myself). I always
start with the big one. This is fairly conservative and less than I do on a
typical workday but I think not adding too much is important.

I write them down in a notebook each day in the morning (might be better doing
it the evening before) and then cross them off when done. Usually I add more
adhoc stuff when I'm done with my "pyramid"

I keep track of long term stuff, ideas, projects and so forth in Trello but
the day to day todo lists are in a plain notebook. I also keep my inboxes
empty and make it a point of emphasis to congratulate myself on removing stuff
from my inbox (30 minute mailcheck is usually one of my 3 small items).

Personal stuff...I don't plan that at all.

For me that fixes most of the stuff mentioned in the post. The notebook TODO
list works very well for me.

------
InTheSwiss
Not this again.

Seriously I am getting bored or the constant reposts on this subject.

Shock. Horror. Something that doesn't work for you works well for other and
vice versa. Personally for me a nice notebook (the inner hipster in me really
likes the soft cover lined page moleskine notebooks) works perfectly. I use
pencil so I can rub out and update each item without having to cross things
out and make things look ugly. It is quick and easy to update and very easy to
do a quick visual parse over.

For electronic notes I find the Google Keep app to be pretty good with its
timed and location based reminders. Although it is much slower to use than a
notebook it is quite nice for when I have a low priority task that I will need
to be reminded to get around too.

------
wetherbeei
I've been working on a tool ([https://then.io](https://then.io)) that solves
all of these problems with the same effort that a todo list requires. Your
tasks are scheduled between your calendar events and within the spans of time
you set for them to be executed. They are ordered so that all of your due
dates are met, with padding for mistakes.

Paradox of choice, lack of context, lack of commitment devices, and
heterogeneous complexity are all solved by the nature of then.io. I would
argue that priority doesn't matter, only due dates do. If you have too many
tasks to finish before a due date, then you need to make the decision of which
due date to push back.

------
piyush_soni
How about to-do lists helping you to remember things? They definitely help me.
I'm the kind of person who forgets everything, and doesn't even WANT TO keep
useless stupid things in my mind rather than thinking something creative. Like
pay rent. It is not an automatic monthly deduction in this apartment. So I
HAVE to remember, otherwise it'll be a fine. There is simply a recurring task
which reminds me of that. Keeping account of things that need to be done in a
big project is also a thing everyone does. The thing is, everyone (including
the author of this article) maintains a to-do list in one way or the other.

------
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.

------
noir_lord
The absolute best organisational method I've found (for myself) is an 80 page
5mm square pad and a good quality pen (the Papermate InkJoy 500's are my
current favourites).

I've tried Trello, Taskwarrior, org-mode, any.do, todo.sh and any number of
other applications but they all do 1 (sometimes 2) things really well but fall
down in other ways.

As a programmer who lives in front of a computer I find it deeply ironic that
my best way of organizing myself/projects is pen and paper.

Any tablet that can accurately mimic the feel of writing will get my money
instantly.

------
wim
Definitely agree with the "calendar" part. It's hard to create some sort of
week plan (or any sort of schedule/plan) with many to-do list types, and it
was one of the reasons we developed Thymer back then.

I'm sure not everyone agrees with the importance of a calendar-like component,
but it definitely helps to be more realistic about the tasks I plan to do. It
also feels like a natural way to prioritize tasks (well, more natural than
assigning a random priority number or letter to it, anyway).

------
newtoon
I totally agree with the problems Daniel is mentioning. After being
increasingly frustrated with most solutions available, we created an iOS app
that attempts to solve exactly those problems. You tell the app how long a
tasks will take, when it needs to be done and how important it is. Our app
then selects the tasks with the highest priority for you every day. It's
called Finido: www.finido-app.com

I am curious what you guys think! Is it a solution to the problems described
by Daniel?

------
snitko
I've been using [http://workflowy.com](http://workflowy.com) for the last
couple of years to organize my work and it does work.

~~~
blumkvist
This is how it works for me:

Just use workflowy and order your tasks in chronological order for tomorrow.
15 minutes right before bed and you will be efficient as a machine. Be
explicit in your tasks, not meticulous. If your daily task has more than 2
levels or more than 5 subtasks, split it up. If it takes more than 2 hours -
you probably should split it up. ymmv. And of course take the occasional
breaks.

This is for people who do a very wide variety of things and also make a lot of
decisions in the process. If majority of your day is in repetitive tasks,
might be even counter-productive.

Also, it is not meant as a project management replacement. It's just a to-do
list.

------
aymeric
For people looking for more advanced todo systems:

1\. GTD: Actionable todos with contexts (plenty of apps out there)

2\. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Puts a accent on your goals
([http://weekplan.net](http://weekplan.net) Disclaimer: my app)

3\. Personal Kanban: Tells you not to start too many things at the same time
(with [http://trello.com](http://trello.com))

------
ww520
I found to-do list works well. They track things so I don't have to keep them
in mind, freeing me to concentrate on the task at hand.

------
adsr
I certainly think the idea of using a calendar instead looks more useful, as
presented here. It does put you closer to actually DO what is on the list as
it includes planning and time considerations. Perhaps a To-Do list is useful
not to forget the things you must do, before you actually add it to a
calendar. But I often find a pen and paper to be more suitable for that.

------
wsc981
While not a To-Do list in the traditional sense, for me the Mailbox App[1]
works rather well as a To-Do list. Every email is treated as a task, some are
immediately finished, some I can "push forward" to e.g. tomorrow or next week
and I receive a notice at that very time.

[1]: [http://www.mailboxapp.com](http://www.mailboxapp.com)

------
jtth
David Allen literally addressed every single point in this post over ten years
ago. To-do lists are fine. Flat ones aren't.

------
juanre
And how about the hubris of my self of yesterday claiming the right to decide
what my self of today should be spending time on? I need to write down things
that need doing and can't be forgotten, but surely I am in a better position
to decide what to do over the next hour now than I was yesterday.

------
mtkd
I maintain a lot - and they work for me.

One recent addition to the set has been a 'simple/tired' list - where I queue
mind-numbing renamings etc.

It's useful when I just want to do something that requires no thinking at all
(at very start of day or late at night).

Haven't found any better storage system then a .txt file yet.

------
lakwn
I use org-mode extensively, and personally I don't experience any of the
problems the author mentions.

~~~
tifareth
I wonder why ;)

(For context, see my previous comments)

------
therandomguy
I have tried todo lists on and off. It definitely works for me in the short
term when I have a lot going on. Recently I started using an app called
Swipes. It has been working great so far. I think it holds up because rather
than fighting it, easy procrastination mechanism is built in.

------
hawkharris
I made a to-do list webapp with a twist just for myself, and it's been really
helpful.

The twist is, every Wednesday, it calculates how many of my goals I've
accomplished during the past week, assigns me a grade, and sends the grade to
three of my friends, to help hold me accountable.

~~~
inovica
Be great to see this. Anything visible?

~~~
hawkharris
Thanks for your nice feedback. The design isn't anything special since it's
just for me at this point, but here's a screenshot:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9229925/Screen%20Shot%20...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9229925/Screen%20Shot%202013-09-29%20at%203.14.05%20PM.png)

I'm planning to share it via Github soon, at which point I'll share the code.

~~~
inovica
Don't worry about the design :) Getting something that works is far more
important. You can find my email etc in my bio so feel free to send something
over or keep in touch.

~~~
hawkharris
Thanks! :) Will do.

------
darkxanthos
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.

~~~
chimeracoder
> 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 with - look up their authentication flow and you'll see what I mean).

~~~
TillE
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.

------
petemir
Am I the only one that thinks this article is extremely similar to this one?

[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57368011/why-to-do-
li...](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57368011/why-to-do-lists-set-
you-up-for-failure/)

------
6thSigma
The only to-do list that I've actually used for more than a week is Any.do. I
really like how you can organize your tasks vaguely based on time (Today,
Tomorrow, Upcoming, Someday). Adding that solves a lot of the author's
problems.

------
tbatterii
I notice the author of this article is ceo of a company that sells personal
and group productivity products and services.
[http://timebackmanagement.com/](http://timebackmanagement.com/)

org-mode works for me.

------
ExpiredLink
> _Daniel Markovitz is the president of TimeBack Management_

------
tonetheman
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. :)

------
jjjeffrey
Does anyone know of any free software that allows you to manage and visualize
tasks in the manner advocated in the article?

~~~
saamm
I may be reading the article incorrectly, but I feel like this could be
accomplished with any calendar software (Outlook, Google Calendar, et c.)

~~~
ZoFreX
This is what I've started doing. I have a few boring and long tasks that don't
have any urgency but do need to be done from time to time, and they kept
getting dropped, for the reasons outlined in this article.

At the suggestion of a coworker I've started scheduling meetings on my
calendar to block out time to deal with them, and so far it's working very
well.

------
enscr
ToDo lists are a necessary evil :) Some manage to tame it, some game it & the
rest just blame it.

------
logicallee
To-do lists don't work - you do.

------
logicman
what I do is plan my personal tasks in Clear (without a due date) and
Brightpod ([http://www.brightpod.com](http://www.brightpod.com)). Luckily,
Brightpod has a pretty powerful calendar that helps me plan my tasks on a
weekly basis.

------
jhprks
I'm using rememberthemilk, so far it has been work well with me, 1577 tasks
completed and counting...

