DonationCoder.com Software > The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009
My assignment: The ToDo List of Doom
app103:
Lists of any kind don't work, unless it is a list to be completed all at once (like a shopping list).
Anything that just sits there like a piece of paper will get ignored, I'll tune it out. It will cease to exist in my conscious mind till I notice it much later on...perhaps years later. There is nothing to remind me to read it, nevermind do what it says. It's like needing to put at the top of your todo list "read your todo list" (not too effective)
Sure. Popup Wisdom would probably work, partially, but the ability to schedule specific messages to pop up at the optimal times for them to get done is very important. I wouldn't want a message to remind me to buy something to pop up at 2am when the stores are all closed, and I wouldn't want something to remind me to add a feature to an application to pop up at 9 am when I am too tired to code.
Things that have deadlines I have set to start popping up about 4-7 days before it is due, that way I have that wiggle room to get it done (like paying my rent). I also set the deadline a day early, so by the time it really is due, it has a red overdue notice at the top that is likely to catch my attention and warn me I can't put it off any longer.
There are even things that I don't have popups for and I just automate the tasks with the notes, like remembering to check giveawayoftheday just opens the web page about 15 minutes after the new deal gets posted, without popping up a note about it.
I also like this method because I can keep the notes sorted on memoboards by type, and color code them, set priorities, temporarily post a single note supersized on my desktop, insert images, links to web pages or files on my hard drive, add other info needed to complete the task, attach notes to web pages or files that pop up when I open them, too.
And they can make noise! (something paper doesn't do)
And all contained in a single application (I switched to Notezilla), so I won't have to have a bunch of stuff running in the background all the time. Just the one application. I make jokes about having my whole brain stored in there but it's really less of a joke than it might seem to an outsider hearing me say it.
And I also have PesterMe for when I want to put some real pressure on myself and repeat a single message every x minutes. The obnoxious sound it makes still scares the crap out of me and makes my family yell at me.
Paul Keith:
Thanks. I agree with alot of what you said.
Yeah PopUp Wisdom doesn't work that way that's why I have ReminderFox for that but I can understand what you mean by having it all in one application.
So just to clarify, To-do list of Doom is going to be a plugin for Notezilla?
With regards to the opening of webpages in specific times, which application do you use for it? Also Notezilla?
Finally what kind of noise do you often use? I'm just curious. This is the one aspect that just seem like it still follows the alarm annoyance model.
app103:
ToDo List of Doom isn't going to be a plugin for anything. It's a metaphor for what I am battling and trying to kill. Any list of tasks is a ToDo List of Doom unless the tasks are meant to be completed all at once, one after the other.
Isolated tasks need to be kept isolated.
It has to do with how my brain processes lists. They fail unless I am meant to process the list all at once in a "single serving".
Another metaphor could be if you were to think of doing a task to be like eating potatoes.
Potato chips, you don't just eat one, you eat them by the handful (list).
Baked potatoes you don't eat a bunch at a time, you eat just one (isolated tasks)
So you wouldn't sit down to a whole platter of baked potatoes, with the intention of eating just one, any more than you would consider doing one task on a list of many large tasks meant to be completed over a longer period of time. (at least that's how it works for me) The thoughts of "holy crap! I have to eat all of that? forget it!" is what ends up going through my mind, either consciously or subconsciously, and I run from the table and don't eat anything (aka nothing gets done).
Makes more sense?
Yes, Notezilla can open files and web pages, either displaying the note or hiding the note. You can select any sound for a note or use the default (a cuckoo bird)
Unchecking the "show reminder" option will make it not display the popup. So for opening a web page, I put the url in the box and uncheck the top boxes so it doesn't pop up the message or make a sound.
Paul Keith:
Oh! ...I think I get it.
The screenshot and the topic title kind of threw me off. Not really sure you should change it but just a heads up.
I think the potato analogy needs to be changed though.
For one thing, the reason you eat handfuls of potatoes is because it's in a set. It's just as possible to do this with baked potatoes, see:
Similarly this is why there was once a suggestion of a one potato chip for sale. The idea was that as soon as you open the packaging, you would see only one potato chip and you would be satisfied and wouldn't want to eat more.
With regards to the noise, I was specifically wondering what your personal alarms sounds like. Alot of these default sounds can be boring while others can be so annoying they're literally the same as watching screamers.
Finally with regards to your problem, the thing that would confuse me is why you would have a list of todos "that's doomed".
It kind of doesn't make sense. Seems much easier to not put in the task in the first place or segment those lists further so you can just delete the unnecessary fat and bloat in those list.
I'm not sure if this is the same thing but the reason I made the word "Parking Lot tools" was precisely as you said, it seems there were certain tasks that keep your other tasks from being isolated and focused on.
With your metaphor, it seems like you've put yourself in a never-ending battle to retain those lists instead of salvaging them or starting from scratch.
This is less so much a criticism but as an inquiry into what you hope you would do with such a list once you have settled on the criteria that all lists are To do Lists of Doom.
app103:
Those are some really small baked potatoes. Not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more like this size:
I don't know too many people that would eat more than one of those.
And a bag of potato chips with only one chip? That would have to be a mighty big chip for me to be satisfied with just one. :D
It took me awhile to figure out that the problem was the lists themselves and not me, so it took me this long to decide to throw them all out after moving the tasks to something better.
I have mentioned a few times before in other threads that following the methods of other people wasn't working and only lead to messing me up completely. The majority of the productivity systems seem to be so obsessed with the idea of lists...lots & lots of lists. And so many different types of lists and so many ways to organize your lists and tackle your lists.
There seems to be this idea among the "productivity gurus" that you can't be productive without everything being on some sort of list.
I spent too much of my time trying to figure out how to make these lists work, fighting against myself, trying to figure out how to "fix" myself so these lists would work. It's just not going to happen.
So now instead of fighting with myself, trying to "fix" myself, I am throwing away what doesn't work and adopting my own system that works with how I think. I don't expect my system to work for anyone else. That's not important to me. What's important is that it works for me.
So, no more lists unless I am going shopping or sending out invitations to a party.
There really isn't too much difference between my sticky notes and mouser's index cards, except that his cards sit there quietly waiting for him to read them and mine jump up in my face at the right time of day and demand to be read...or they start the task without me and wait for me to jump in and finish.
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