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Comment by dangero | Hacker News Reader

Are there potential solutions to the problems mentioned or is building a great todo list app not possible?

I’m leaning towards it’s impossible, but would like to hear what others think.

I think there are solutions, but whether or not they are the same for a large enough market is hard to tell.

I use a leaky bucket metaphor in my todo lists... if a given task sits on a list for too long, then it should more or less fall off. It wasn't as important as you thought. But this is anathema to how most of these systems work.

I do: punt, punt, punt, dead.

When I read the article at first it resonated with me, but your solution solves it, just delete them. So I better add a task to my TODO to delete tasks once a month.

I tend to use my memory for my todo list, which accomplishes this quite naturally.

The key is to really address your feelings of guilt over the whole process of just forgetting about shit that was never that important to begin with.

Which I think is probably the biggest inherent problem with TODO apps (and Jira backlogs).

Omnifocus basically solves almost all complaints people have with Todo apps. You have to spend time on it, and that's because "Todo lists" are project management, but people don't see it as such.

Some people have "weird requirements" and even those can be gotten right thanks to very good configurable searches and views. The competition is miles behind Omnifocus (I think the fact it started as a local app and not a web app helps, cuz you're not worrying about "heavy queries" or whatnot)

Different activities and different personalities require different approaches I guess. I for example do not get most of the arguments from the writing. Perhaps because I usually need to deal with few big tasks not millions of small ones. The few important ones are easy to keep in mind, need to manage only the less important externally (and strive to get rid of the marginal ones). Others live differently. I guess the task is impossible due to the diverging needs.

Tbh that is the way to go. Be in a position where you have to tackle a few very important tasks, and outsource the little ones to others.

Yes, this. See also the "Eisenhower Matrix".

Yes. When task entry is a chore, and requires detailed determination of priority (and other fields), it's a deterrent. The Eisenhower Quadrants are a way to toss a new task entry into the right box without pausing for headscratching.

Maybe it's not possible if you try to mash everything together; recurring tasks are not the same as once-off tasks etc. That's why I'm okay with using multiple solutions.

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