- The demonstration video is very helpful and aesthetically pleasing
- Tabbing to indent is awesome
- Easy learning curve
This would be excellent for:
- Meeting notes (as demonstrated)
- Many little busywork tasks or shopping lists
- General tree structures
These tools help you remember a bunch of small things.
However, that is generally not my problem. I need to focus substantial brain power toward solving a handful of problems. In that case, I find todo lists useless. I often realise I've chosen too many tasks; many of them stupid, unachievable or now irrelevant given new information. Furthermore, having lots of tasks written down is a red flag for me. Lots of tasks means I need to invest more time into problem discovery. If I just pull a list of tasks off the top of my head and get to work, I make a serious mess.
I have lately taken to reflective practice while programming. I enter a task and a time estimate into a Google sheet. Later I return and the sheet calculates the actual time and estimation error. Then I write a reflective comment. Sometimes I realise the task was too large, not well-defined, my own bad design made an easy task hard, etc... I think reflection generates insight and improvement. This is infinitely more useful to my everyday life than a todo list.
Google sheets works for this, but it just works; it’s not nice and it’s overkill really. Consequently, I think an expertly crafted, reflective todo list could constitute a worthwhile productivity application for problem solving.
We have had so, so many todo list apps over the years. I've tried and ditched more than I can count, because the process of mere todo listing has very limited usefulness in my life.
- The demonstration video is very helpful and aesthetically pleasing
- Tabbing to indent is awesome
- Easy learning curve
This would be excellent for:
- Meeting notes (as demonstrated)
- Many little busywork tasks or shopping lists
- General tree structures
These tools help you remember a bunch of small things.
However, that is generally not my problem. I need to focus substantial brain power toward solving a handful of problems. In that case, I find todo lists useless. I often realise I've chosen too many tasks; many of them stupid, unachievable or now irrelevant given new information. Furthermore, having lots of tasks written down is a red flag for me. Lots of tasks means I need to invest more time into problem discovery. If I just pull a list of tasks off the top of my head and get to work, I make a serious mess.
I have lately taken to reflective practice while programming. I enter a task and a time estimate into a Google sheet. Later I return and the sheet calculates the actual time and estimation error. Then I write a reflective comment. Sometimes I realise the task was too large, not well-defined, my own bad design made an easy task hard, etc... I think reflection generates insight and improvement. This is infinitely more useful to my everyday life than a todo list.
Google sheets works for this, but it just works; it’s not nice and it’s overkill really. Consequently, I think an expertly crafted, reflective todo list could constitute a worthwhile productivity application for problem solving.
We have had so, so many todo list apps over the years. I've tried and ditched more than I can count, because the process of mere todo listing has very limited usefulness in my life.