Why is a todo list a good idea?
I started using Things (https://culturedcode.com/things/) because it's so flighty on what it offers in terms of scheduling. You can set tasks to be done today, and deadlines separately. You can't set certain due times or hours -- and you can basically turn off all nagging. It's become projects and tasks that I both need and want to do, but it frees me from dealing with them in my head.
So, it's liberating when done right. It can be done wrong, though. Tasks that aren't actionable make these systems rough, because they set deadlines on immeasurable amounts of work, which creates stress. The trick is to make sure tasks are actionable, and that you aren't remembering them yourself.
What I'm unsure about is whether the actual tech behind the TODO list matters. It seems we love to discuss this (or reimplement it!) because we're programmers and/or tech people, and tech naturally appeals to us. But I'm unsure Taskwarrior or any particular tool actually matters. I think what matters is that you keep a TODO list in whatever format is useful to you. To me, the discipline matters; the actual tech/UI behind it is pretty much irrelevant.
It's just that. That's why programmers keep making todo lists. Because some people want more flexibility, some want less. Some need some specific feature set, and some think other features are stupid. They're simple enough systems that people can build whatever flavor they want -- and it'll work for them -- rather than be constrained to whatever is available.
Tasks are a function of:
- priority - completion time - complexity
For example, if I'm fresh I should choose something that's complex and I have the time for. A higher priority (depending on deadline) might take less brain CPUs so maybe it waits.
Thinking of things simply in terms of priority ignores the most important component: your brain.
If you just have a todo list, though, you run the risk of stressing yourself out about the items on the list. And that's kinda defeating the point.
Seriously though, I'm just annoyed by some aspects of them:
1. I feel spread too thin: item 1 doesn't get the attention it deserves because I was thinking of doing item 2. The GTD book itself seems to say, "I'm a victim of this problem."
2. The longer an item stays on a list the less likely I am to do it.
3. I'm annoyed by having a long list of things to do.
4. I was optimistic when I made the list, but later when I'm doing things I become more pessimistic.
5. I like the days when I lose track of time and suddenly it's 17:00 when I thought it was 11:00. I don't usually have that kind of day when I operate from a list.
Re 3: This motivates me to reduce and focus. I stopped agreeing to obligations from other people if I didn't actually want to do it, need to do it, or if other things had higher priority. I started setting aside daily time for a specific task (before I socialize with friends during the week, I usually show up early with a book I want to read).
Re 5: I still get these, even working from a list. In fact, thanks to 2 and 3 I feel like it happens more often. Because when I sit down to do something, I can be confident I'm not forgetting something else that needs to be done first.
Doing things and doing the right things are two different things.
Dumping it all into org-mode GTD style helped made me feel noticeably lighter. All of this stuff that's been bouncing around in my brain is now stored in a place that I trust to keep it. It's all organized in a relatively hierarchical fashion (projects & sub-projects), with next actions identified for most projects.
Every week (usually Sunday morning), I spent a 0.5-1 hr looking at the week that has passed and looking at the week ahead. Specifically looking at "doing the right things" is the point of this. I look at my overall goals and try to figure out whether or not the tasks (and the containing projects) are what I should actually be working on. If there's tasks that I think should be done in the following week, I schedule those tasks for a particular day so that each morning when I wake up I've got a manageable list of things to accomplish that I've already decided help move the needle in some way.
During that review I also give a look through the list of projects that don't currently have scheduled tasks and figure out if there's one there that should get included in the following week's schedule.
I keep everything driven in there. Some of them are recurring tasks/chores (walk the dogs, clean furnace filter, call Grandma), while some are more tactical (get feature X specced out, touch base with old client X), and some are more strategic (review financial plan).
The beauty of all of this is that the "doing the right things" evaluation and the "what should I be doing today" evaluations are separated but still pretty close in time. This, for me, helps me from getting too caught up in the moment and spending a lot of time doing the wrong things.