Ask: HN I keep adding items to my 'todo' list and it keeps getting larger

3 points·hplust··3 comments

Looking for suggestions and/or recommendations from others who have created a long todo list and how they dealt with it without ignoring it.

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The first todo system that worked for me was bullet journal. It is essentially just a notebook where you write down every todo.

I partition it in days and put new things there. Not actionable notes, todos and events get different symbols in front.

Not actionable notes: "-"

todos: "·"

events. "◯"

Once I have done a todo the "·" becomes a "x".

Events that are done will get a "x" drawn over the "◯".

When I have to start a new double-page I also migrate all the old todos and events that are not "x"-ed so far to the new page.

THIS is the crux. You have to migrate them by hand. Your todo list won't grow to infinity because you are lazy. Instead you re-evaluate if the todo is really necessary still.

Yes? Migrate.

No? Cross it out.

I also have topic-related or project-specific pages where I track their todos. Eventually the current double-page will be full and I also have to migrate there. In my daily list I then just have a todo like "do the next thing for project XYZ, see page 42", where page 42 would be the current project XYZ page containing the todo.

Begin actually doing them or just see how big you can make it, also removing duplicates helps

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