My to-do list(s)
Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
In the spirit of the upcoming New Year, some meta-organizing:
Did you ever notice that LJ features a To-Do List function? It's a bit ungainly and not terribly useful as is (adding each new item requires multiple reloads; there are no subtask fields; I doubt the format is too printer-friendly, especially for someone like me whose real to-do list would be dozens [not to say hundreds] of items long...).
The Time Management seminar I took at MIT some months back had only a few really useful key points to offer me:
Anyway, so the items I've entered on my LJ To-Do list are basically my "Someday" category. Which purpose fits well with the interface, in that these are things I'm effectively parking until further notice -- but are worth occasional review. Especially at times when I'm mulling over other big-picture life issues.
Tonight, to tackle the the real mind-sweep. I hope. Along with finishing the newsletter layout (and, oh yeah, the dishes). But first, dinner.
Did you ever notice that LJ features a To-Do List function? It's a bit ungainly and not terribly useful as is (adding each new item requires multiple reloads; there are no subtask fields; I doubt the format is too printer-friendly, especially for someone like me whose real to-do list would be dozens [not to say hundreds] of items long...).
The Time Management seminar I took at MIT some months back had only a few really useful key points to offer me:
- The things that suck your mental energy the most are the things you are NOT doing (avoiding, waiting on, etc.). Write them down, break them down, decide what parts you're going to do soon and what you're going to do later (or never)... and free yourself of them.
- An incomplete list is often worse than no list at all (because you put even more energy into reminding yourself, in the background, of whatever you didn't include on the list). We did an exercise they called a mind sweep, which is to write down Every Single Thing In Every Area Of Your Life that's currently weighing on your mind. I already do this, but not often enough. I need to do it again now, that's for sure. It really was energizing. [Plus I just had the entertaining impulse to develop a project-management software tool using this principle and call it MindSweeper...]
- In the short term: Projects are not the same as tasks, projects are made up of tasks. (Projects are also not the same as goals; they are the things you decide to do to further your goals.) A list of your near-term projects can and should break out the subtasks of those projects in as much detail as possible. But this is different from your immediate (daily/weekly) list of "action items" (much as that phrase bugs me), which you pull from the projects list as appropriate. Cross-pollination is key.
- Keep a "Someday/Maybe" or otherwise "long-term" to-do list, completely separate from those other lists. This is stuff that occurs to you that would be cool, or useful, or that you otherwise know you want to do eventually, but isn't pressing in any way. This keeps you from muddying your "real" list of concrete I-am-currently-working-on-this projects with things you aren't, realistically, going to be spending any energy on anytime soon. Assigning something to that list also gives you "permission" not to think about it again until you actually decide to pick it up for real.
Anyway, so the items I've entered on my LJ To-Do list are basically my "Someday" category. Which purpose fits well with the interface, in that these are things I'm effectively parking until further notice -- but are worth occasional review. Especially at times when I'm mulling over other big-picture life issues.
Tonight, to tackle the the real mind-sweep. I hope. Along with finishing the newsletter layout (and, oh yeah, the dishes). But first, dinner.