Hate Your To-Do List? Try A Rolling List Instead | Hacker News Reader

Hate Your To-Do List? Try A Rolling List Instead

lifehack.org

18 pointspykello6 comments

I don't get it. How is this different than any other todo list? Who doesn't sort their todo list by some type of priority / due date?

Give it a cutesy name doesn't make it new or better.

Seems like it was written by a requirements engineer.

A Rolling list is good for long term planning, what you need to get things done is to write down only one main task per day, do that and the rest will come automatically. And stop using complex software for to-do lists.

I totally agree. The biggest mistake I used to make when stuff got complex was trying to get back "control" by "normalizing all the tasks": writing stuff down way ahead of time etc. I now do one task at a time, take a short break, then the next task.

This sounds like something along the lines of Getting Things Done, a to-do system where goals are broken down into actionable tasks that can be re-arranged as needed.

The biggest problem with most to-do lists, I find, is that there's a tendency to write down goals instead of tasks. Tasks are simply actions that you do in order to reach your goals.

Writing down goals is important, but they should be kept separately. The problem with writing down your goals in your to-do list is that you then see items like this:

* Plan fundraiser

and

* Fix bug that occasionally crashes server randomly

instead of

* Call restaurant to confirm date and rates * Select menu items for caterer * Write donation tax receipt for Mr. Smith's donation

and

* Find the bug (probably some problem with the new database sharding) * Write unit test for the fix * Fix bug * Write description of patch and submit to code review

The second one may be a bit overkill, but you get the idea. In my experience, 90% of to-do list problems can be solved by making the items actionable as opposed to simply reminders of one's goals.

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