Life ToDo | Hacker News Reader

Life ToDo

blog.alexmaccaw.com

66 pointsjoeyespo54 comments

I don't mean to be pointlessly negative, but this is the kind of post that makes me chuckle a bit at the idea of Svbtle being 'the future of journalism', and a hallmark for posts of a superior quality. There's nothing particularly actionable or novel, which would be excusable if it were at least interesting.

I don't mean to disparage Alex -- a lot of his posts have been incredible, such as how he implemented asynchronous image uploading (http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/svbtle-image-uploading) -- but this would benefit from showing it to an editor and asking for advice.

This is the opposite of what I do. My TODO list has exactly one item on it: the most important thing. Once that's done, I will then pick the new most important thing and it will become the only item on my TODO list.

I do this for 2 main reasons:

If I have too many items on my TODO list and I get tired or lazy (which happens too often), then I will gravitate to those items which are easiest or the most gratifying at that moment without regard to importance. The problem is that I don't realize that I'm working on a lower priority until it's too late and my time has been lost.

The other reason is that I believe I really don't know what the second most important thing to do is until after I've done the first most important thing. I have discovered that I learn a lot through both the process and the result of doing the first item. That learning often reveals what to do next. (Ex: Now that I understand what the process must be, I have to redo the database schema.)

OP's description of his system was very interesting. It made me wonder if I'm missing something.

Alex, would it invade your privacy too much to see an example of your TODO list? (An example's worth a thousand words.)

Doesn't this assume all your potential tasks fall in one category or lead to one big goal like an inportant client project or something? What happens if two sets of tasks are unrelated, like dealing with kids vs projects? How do you keep the todo list from having more than one task in this case?

I believe that most tasks can be characterized by three attributes: importance, size and urgency. Unfortunately, most people want immediate gratification, so they will tend to focus on small, urgent tasks so that they can get that immediate reward, even if they have other tasks to that are important, large but not yet urgent. By the time the important, large tasks become urgent, there frequently isn't enough time to do them properly, and they get rushed, with predictably unsatisfactory results. It's really hard to work on a task with a deadline a month away, when there's something that can be completed easily, that's due today.

I believe that the best way to solve this problem is to take those big, important problems and divide them into much smaller chunks, and then give them intermediate deadlines that will ensure that enough progress is made that when the final deadline approaches, you won't be facing a huge task that hasn't even been started.

Of course, this idea doesn't give you a free pass from exercising some self-discipline; you have to honor those intermediate deadlines and actually make some progress on those important, big problems.

Not to mention that by sharing it, he would be 33% more likely to accomplish whatever is on the list.

Or more likely to not accomplish whatever is on the list. I read a study that claimed that the act of sharing what you intend to do makes you believe you are making progress before you even started - and making it more likely that you will not accomplish whatever you had intended.

This most likely varies a lot depending on the person. For me, telling someone what I intend to do is a good motivator (although I'm sure it would loose its value if I abused it).

Derek Sivers offers a counterargument (with citations) here: http://sivers.org/zipit

How do you ensure that stuff like filing your taxes becomes the most important thing by some suitable time? I felt Getting Things Done made a compelling claim that any TODO that isn't written down will continually occupy a bit of my brain, due to anxiety about overlooking it (which I definitely have).

I think Ed's approach is not necessarily incompatible with GTD. All he is saying is that he uses only one context is his next-actions list (@now?), which usually contains only one item. Everything else is in a someday/maybe list...

I particularly enjoy the GTDish technique of emptying one's mind and all inboxes, but I have also been trapped in too many "what-if" scenarios and in non-important tasks. Thus, I really think that Ed is making a valid point here.

BTW, filing taxes should be only a reminder in your calendar or tickler system.

What if you really want to achieve something that will naturaly take about 10 years?

Surely somewhere during that time you'll concurrently have other, less important, objectives.

single-threaded in other words. This is hardly a viable way to execute anything. It may seem like a sequence of serial single goals but in fact you're unknowingly multitasking.

Interesting. I wanted to make "Yet Another Todo List" that was really only about the most important things you had to do today, picked from a "backlog" of all the different things you could do, in no particular order.

The point being that a long task list is useless, but the few most important things to do today is helpful.

I just started doing this two weeks ago, and I can't emphasize enough how much this has changed my life. Keep in mind, this is going from absolutely zero organization to at least a basic system, so if you're already a structural person, YMMV.

I use Workflowy for this, and it's nearly perfect for the job. If you've been thinking of doing something like this, I recommend you try this out. It's extremely fast and I feel like it has greatly improved my life.

My workflowy layout looks like this:

  Goals
    - Weekly
    - Monthly
    - Yearly
  
  Todo
    - Today
    - Tomorrow
    - etc
  
  Backlog
    - These are proposals for things to fold into my todo list.  They include current projects, things I want to learn, hobbies I want to start, etc.
  
  Roadblocked / not ready
    - Items that cannot be accomplished yet due to another person or event
  Projects
    - This is a repository for notes about my current projects.  I use workflowy's @ and # tags for this, and link specific labels to items / groups in my Todo list.  (This is one of the cool things about   Workflowy)
  
  Ideas for applications
    - I have a large repository of ideas I've had.  These range from half-baked "in the shower" ideas, to fully flushed out business models with market research, presentation text, etc.  
    - This is a very subtle but extremely useful way to record your thoughts.  There's almost no friction between typing "ctrl + t, w, return, @ideas" any time I'm using a web browser with a keyboard.
  
  Random thoughts
    - Other things I'm thinking

Glad I'm not the only one to use Workflowy for that. It's perfect for the job! My lists are much deeper, and categorized within life goals. So I have a top-level item called "Move to Europe" with nested TODOs representing all that needs to get done for that to happen. The deepest item in that list is my current contract project's tasks. Seems unrelated, but I'm not moving to Europe until I finish my current project. From time to time navigating up and down my lists, I "accidentally" stumble upon the whole point of all this - moving to Europe. It's a wonderful workflow, and keeps me in tune with what matters in my goals. Seriously, I may be overselling - but Workflowy has changed my life :)

After that, I use my own https://habitrpg.com to keep me on task with my Workflowy.

HabitRPG may be exactly what I was looking for. Do you know any other likes that, or is that the best you know of?

I made that site because I couldn't find anything quite like it. Since making it though, I've found Beeminder, which is pretty flipping cool. Additionally, there's EpicWin - but that's only an iPhone app, no website or Android. I'm biased :) (PS, there are few Android equivalents out there, but meh).

There's something wrong in Chrome with the login button. It works on Firefox, but it stays disabled in Chrome. I think I had the same problem when I registered too, and I have to use Firefox. And could you add Google sign-in integration, too?

Uh oh, are you referring to Beeminder here?

PS: Thanks so much to lefnire of http://HabitRPG.com for the kind words!

The Things iOS app is great for this. Yeah, it's pricey, but I really like the organizational features it offers, particularly the ability to separate completable projects from general life areas. For instance, I've got lists for all of my design projects, then lists for Family, Relationship, Personal, which aren't goals that are necessarily achievable, but areas that need to be worked on, nonetheless.

Mac app is $50... so I'm sticking with the iOS app for now.

The Mac app is pretty great, especially if you are already using the iPhone app - the two sync up perfectly (in almost real time) and the mac app has keyboard shortcuts for instantly adding new tasks.

That's cool! I like that structure. Maybe we'll write a blog post about this. (I make WorkFlowy).

First of all, nice job with Workflowy! It's really changed the way I organize my life.

If you're interested in my organization system, there are lots of other cool things I do that I didn't delve into here. I'd love to chat with you about some of the more interesting ways I use it. Actually, one of my "ideas for applications" is a replacement / extension for Workflowy -- I think the core metaphor is very powerful for frictionless organization, and I'm excited to see where you guys take the concept.

If you want to talk about any of this stuff, please shoot me an email. My address is ckjohnson aaa outlook daught com.

If there's any blogpost or the like that comes out of this, be sure to share! I just started using workflowy because of all the positive opinions on HN - but can't dig out some of the functionality you mention in your post yet.

> were 33% more likely to achieve them than those that merely formulated goals.

I've heard this before and I've also heard the exact opposite. That telling other people your goals reduces the chances of finishing them. The theory I remember (I google but was unable to find a good link) was that telling someone a goal feels 60% as good as actually doing the goal itself. So it is easier to just tell everyone your goals and then invent new goals.

I'm not trying to contradict Alex Maccaw. I've just noticed this dichotomy before and been curious how people reconcile the two theories.

Has anyone else noticed these two recommendations or know what I'm referring to?

I seem to remember something like that as well.

However, writing down for your own benefit != telling someone else.

I can't speak to the accuracy of the studies he's quoting here, but Derek Sivers talks about this in a post on his blog (https://sivers.org/zipit). Central quotes:

"Once you've told people of your intentions, it gives you a “premature sense of completeness.”"

"You have “identity symbols” in your brain that make your self-image. Since both actions and talk create symbols in your brain, talking satisfies the brain enough that it “neglects the pursuit of further symbols.”"

But, as others have pointed out, what Alex is talking about is (I believe) more of a list for your own benefit, rather than a publicly-shared list.

He has also done a TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you....

This is an interesting concept and I once tried to build a company around it. Productizing the concept led to me understand some of the problems inherent with goal setting, and what you can do to counter them.

Most people share a similar set of vague goals. "Eat healthier." "Make more money." "Do what I love." "Fall in love." But very few want to take the time to break down how they would accomplish it. The more time you spend on this step, the closer you'll get to understanding challenges you might face and learning how to overcome them.

The act of sharing your goal makes you put less effort into achieving it[0]. We get a kind of high from imagining ourselves completing it, and this partially satisfies the urge to complete it.

How do you set a time limit for your harder goals? And what happens when you don't achieve them within your established timeframe? For many people, failure can be depressing. Know in advance that timelines are fluid and that missing a milestone is okay.

It's hard to group daily life tasks under your broader, overarching goals. Take time out daily (ideally at the start of the day) to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. At the end of the day, review whether what you did helped or hindered your stated long-term goals.

Just a few suggestions from a year's worth of seeing how 20,000 people try to accomplish their goals.

[0] http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

I recently read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg which from my perspective goes in line with some of the things you stated. It's changed how I view setting goals. I still will decide on some specific result I want, but I focus most of my energy on deciding on and trying to inculcate habits that will move me toward the desired result.

Anyway, the book is good. I think it covers an important aspect of goal-setting that can easily be overlooked.

This style of todo list quickly gets out of hand, leading to more time required for maintaining a spreadsheet than actually completing tasks, leading to eventual abandonment. Stick with a pad of sticky notes and or notepad. Nothing else comes close.

I have multiple todo-lists in the iOS Reminders-app. They are labeled after things like the app I am currently working on (where I use it like a poor man's ticketing system), private life, and even a shopping list.

I write down things as they come up and check regularly. Some lists get checked each time it makes sense (when I go to the store or open up XCode for a few hours of coding), others get checked every day or every week.

Things that are obsolete, done or no longer important, get checked off or deleted. I am ruthless about it. The fewer items, the better.

I think the secret of success is to have ONE place where every task, idea or project goes. If you have that then putting things there becomes almost an automatic reflex.

And I neither store things like big life goals in my todo-lists, nor do I write down all the steps required for each task. I can think of the steps when I start working on an item.

Also, it is nice that the Reminders-app is simple and clean, but at the same time that it syncs between all my devices. If I was using different systems I might try a service like Catch or Evernote to share my lists.

My recommendation for everyone is to come up with a system for themselves and stick to it. It becomes easy after a while.

Most of all, it gives you peace of mind. Because if you write something down, you can forget about it. Until you check your list again that is.

So here's a silly idea HN might appreciate. After reading some protocol specs I thought of using the key words from RFC 2119[1] to organize my todo list.

There are tasks I MUST do, which are an absolute requirement. There are tasks I SHOULD do: there may exist valid reasons to postpone or skip them, but the full implications should be carefully weighed first. And there are tasks I MAY do, things that aren't essential at all, although they would be neat if I have time.

This helps because before, I would typically clutter my todo list with every random cool idea that came to mind, then get overwhelmed and never do most of it. Or spend all day on fun yet unimportant stuff. Now the priority C, or "MAY", items are clearly marked and I prune any that cease to interest me, while gravitating to priority A, or "MUST", items to complete first.

[1] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119

You're right on the mark with this. There's a book for adults with ADHD that recommends the exact same prioritization scheme. I've used it for years to prioritize tasks as A, B, and C to great effect.

There's also the "four quadrants" shtick - 7 Habits, IIRC.

Divide into Important/Not Important and Urgent/Not Urgent. (And then ditch all "Not important, not urgent" tasks :)

I remember Bryan Tracy was also talking about that in one of his book - like ABCD planning:

A - must do B - should do C - nice to do D - may do

I may not remember the last one correctly, but it was something like that.

I used to go with Brian Tracy's advice and write my goals out on a piece of paper every morning. Then review with what I've put down in previous days/weeks. It forces the creative muscle and also some goals reveal themselves as less important when they get omitted enough times.

I'm always looking for ways to stay motivated and keep me focused. I've tried the Todo list before, but it always seems to fall by the wayside when the little things in life come up.

What have other's done that has worked for them personally?

I used to have something similar but then my document became hard to maintain and to keep it focused (short term goals vs long term goals). I switched to a slightly different approach, I use Evernote and I have 3 tags for notes, a "daily", "month" and "year". Which should be obvious, in "daily" I write down the things that I know I want to get done that day. In month I have higher level goals for that month, same with year. Helps a lot keep tracks in perspective and organize the "day to day" stuff along with the higher picture and longer term perspective.

I have a similar document, that I use to plan pretty much everything from personal projects, to shopping lists, to restaurants I want to try out, etc. I found google docs to be pretty unmaintainable, and have settled on using https://workflowy.com/ for this as a hierarchical bullet point style TODO/Notes lists. I'd highly recommend it to anyone else like myself who have tried 20 different TODO list applications but have never settled on a good solution

I get the to-do list... I used to make them myself.

However, I found that I would stress over the list. I need to do this or I need to do that... whatever! Stress sucks and my life is better w/out it.

Now, I follow the "whats the most important thing I should be doing right now?" and do it.

http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

Not everyone is like me, so I suggest sticking with what works for you and your life situation.

Cheers.

I've kept a similar todo list in a Trello board since last year. It acts as an indispensable reminder of priorities and progress — like an analytics dashboard for life.

While it's somewhat useful as a reference and procrastination deterrent, I find the real value comes from asking myself the big, fuzzy "What do I want out of life?" questions more often.

> Naturally this list is in constant flux, and as I grow older my priorities change.

I benefit tremendously from having a "Life TODO" list of my own, but my list is designed to be in flux as little as possible. A constant state of flux for true life goals sounds like a recipe for doing a lot of interesting things an inch deep instead of a mile deep.

This article is a welcome reminder that I've been intending to do this. Somehow, I usually remember all the things I want to do around 2am and then forget them again by the morning. It would be nice to have a more frequent reminder. And I love using Google docs for things like this. Things to do, places I want to go, etc.

Those apps and google docs are all so waste of time! You should use http://www.trello.com it has also apps for ios and android but normally runs in locked chrome tab. Trello is like power boosting ur todo when u have many projects and goals.

What are some good, easy to use progress tracking tools that encourage you to keep working or "do one more"?

I've been using http://www.joesgoals.com, but it only really works for one type of task only, as it counts everything together otherwise.

Goalsontrack.com is one, it attempts to link your long-term goals with everyday tasks.

My 2013 resolution is: merge all my todo-lists in just one, with a very few tasks, no more than 5 per day, that I really need to accomplish.

The reason is simple: the more I had fed them with tasks and didn't accomplish them - hard working is a recurrent reason - the more I got frustrated.

One thing I learned from reading Switch (a great book, by the way) is to write down tasks in much smaller and actionable steps. So instead of "finish paper", you'd write "write introduction" and so forth. It's worked so far.

If I'm reading this right, he's talking about broader life goals, not just tasks as such. A strategy todo list to keep you on the right track, if you like.

It seems like you might be better off keeping your goals to yourself.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Shameless plug: I built a small web app to manage and share your bucket list.

http://www.challengelistcreator.com

Any idea for improvement?

There's an app for that! -- actually, there are 1000 apps for that: http://chizzl.com/

I do the same with Trello. I have a "life" board. Easy to move things around as priorities change.

Then there's those that think it's better to have an anti-todo list.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com