
Show HN: Tet – A todo app that deletes your tasks at the end of the day - aswinmohanme
http://tet.aswinmohan.me/
======
roughfalls
I once read a statement attributed to Steve Ballmer that every six months, he
tears his todo list in half and throws the bottom half away. If anything far
down that list was actually a priority, it will naturally get re-added (by
thinking of it again, in response to a customer, etc.).

My implementation of that approach is to do the following each month:

    
    
        1. Export all my unfinished todo items older than 6 months.
        2. Place that export alongside my other backups.
        3. Then delete those items from my todo app.
    

I deliberately do not look at any of those items during this process, lest I
be tempted to dive back into them.

That way, I limit my total mental clutter while retaining some peace of mind,
since I know that I can get back to those items (I sometimes attach photos,
notes, etc. to tasks) if needed. I never do.

~~~
klenwell
That's an interesting idea. I picked up this book, Principles of Product
Development Flow, based on some recommendations I think I came across here on
HN:

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6278270-the-
principles-o...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6278270-the-principles-
of-product-development-flow)

Reinertsen really helps you appreciate the costs associated with queues (of
which the TODO list would be a common form) and this seems consistent with the
principles he advocates.

One key quote related to this that I am still trying to wrap my head around:

 _Few product developers are aware of the causal links between high capacity-
utilization, queues, and poor economic performance. Instead, developers assume
that their cycle times will be faster when resources are fully utilized. In
reality, as we shall see later, high levels of capacity utilization are
actually a primary cause of long cycle time._

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _In reality, as we shall see later, high levels of capacity utilization are
> actually a primary cause of long cycle time._

So what's the reason explained by the book?

(My guess would be something along the lines of: high level of utilization
lead to sudden peaks in load exceeding available capacity, and thus throwing a
wrench in the process as you scramble to add capacity.)

~~~
jwhitlark
100% use of nearly anything is over use, not just because of peaks in load,
but because it must both be done and perfect.

Think of a bookcase. 100% means you can never add more books, and it also
makes it very difficult to reorganize anything.

------
monkeynotes
This would just give me huge anxiety. One reason I write things down in a todo
list is to remove the anxiety of having to remember everything. I am happier
with triaging my todo list myself, but everyone works differently.

~~~
weego
I like the idea of this as a complement to a more rigorous todo system. Maybe
I'm just bad at it but it's easy for my lists to get overwhelming, a system
like this demands that more care is put into making choices over what is and
isn't achievable in a day.

------
carrier_lost
I like the Ivy Lee method for to-do lists: [https://jamesclear.com/ivy-
lee](https://jamesclear.com/ivy-lee) Bonus: No app required, just pencil and
paper.

------
menacingly
I use a shell script called "jrnl" that opens vim with 3 tabs: today,
yesterday, tomorrow. It's got a "TODO" section, and if I care enough about
something from yesterday, I can bring it over. The files are stored like
2018/2018-02-06.txt, and if I really want something I can just grep for it.

~~~
diggan
Guessing it's [http://jrnl.sh](http://jrnl.sh) ? Seems to written in Python
though, while you say shellscript.

Sounds like a useful script, care to share it here?

~~~
menacingly
No, it's mine, although I realized how unoriginal I was when I saw that. It's
pretty crappy, maybe if I cleaned it up someone might find it useful.

It's pretty much just a handy way to generate the filenames for vim. Oh, and
it generates a git commit after vim closes.

------
dvdhnt
I'm a fan of Bullet Journaling. It helps to categorize, document, and carry
tasks, thoughts, and ideas forward, or remove them while making them available
for sourcing.

All it takes is a pen and notebook.

[http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/](http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/)

~~~
bluesroo
As someone who's been trying to pick up a consistent task tracking system, I
have a question: Do you just always have a notepad with you? I tried something
similar to this with a pocket-size notepad, but it was annoying and didn't fit
very well with a pen.

So far the closest I've gotten is having a Google Doc, but it doesn't have the
same flexibility that a hand-written notepad does (e.g. symbols, indexes, ease
of writing/ access).

~~~
keyboardhitter
Yes, I always carry a notebook even in non work situations. It's never been an
issue for me as far as transportation is concerned, I just slip it alongside
my laptop or other books.

I also have a Samsung Note phone which is useful in the rare case I'm caught
without a notebook or pen. I'll re-write any notes to my work notebook as
needed.

------
Joeri
I use separate daily, monthly and yearly todo lists. Daily means finish it
within 24 hours, monthly within the next 30 days. Items promote or demote
based on need and get thrown off the yearly list when it’s clear they won’t
happen within the year (which I interpret as “not really needed”).

Really helps me focus by removing clutter.

------
dugmartin
One of these days I'm going to follow through on an old idea of mine to use
flash paper for my todo list.

[https://www.dreamlandmagic.com/products/flash-paper-
pads-2x3...](https://www.dreamlandmagic.com/products/flash-paper-
pads-2x3-inch-size-20-sheets)

------
dnqthao
Is the name "Tet" related to the Vietnamese New Year?

~~~
donquichotte
That was the first thing that came to my mind, too.

It might well be - the Vietnamese like to clean their house before Tết to
start fresh into the new year.

------
turc1656
Not all tasks are designed to be done in one day, or the same day. For that
reason I won't be using this app, but appreciate and respect its purpose and
possible utility to others.

However, I think other todo apps could use this as a great April Fool's joke
to put people into a momentary panic to get them thinking about all the stuff
they should have done. When they logged into the app they it would be blank
with a "what happened to my stuff?" link which directs them to an announcement
they allegedly received in email about the changes taking place and then after
a minute it could revert with the April Fool's message. That might get people
thinking about their procrastination.

------
shennyg
I agree that automatically carrying over todo's to the next day is a bad idea.
You need to be able to trust your todo tracker. It would be helpful to have
some sort of history/log of your tasks just in case you need it.

It reminds me of [https://complice.co/](https://complice.co/) each day you
need to put in your new tasks __but __you get to review yesterday 's
incomplete items and pull them in. It has a lot of smarts built in and tell
you you've pulled in the same task day after day and suggests you split it
into smaller pieces.

Nice job shipping aswinmohanme!

------
wruza
Another cool idea is to have an app that records your todos with check marks
and posts doge memes at the end of the day on your twitter.

“I was going to study convolutional neural networks today @ but instead bought
milk”.

------
harryf
Nice use of "behavioural economics"

~~~
tw1010
Did you mean "psychology"?

------
ronreiter
I just write my todos on toilet paper and wipe my ass with it

------
hmhrex
Asking honestly, what would be the benefit of this?

~~~
blocked_again
Does it make a difference if you were asking it dishonestly?

~~~
hmhrex
I guess I should have clarified, I didn't want to sound snarky while asking
what the benefit would be, I'm actually curious.

~~~
gnclmorais
You mean… the benefit of a to-do list? Asking honestly.

------
Jeaye
s/thier/their/g on the home page, please.

~~~
dangoor
I spotted this and actually imagined that it was on the todo list to fix... (
_was_ being the operative word)

------
aswinmohanme
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/tet](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/tet)

Here is the product hunt link

