Works For Me Wednesday: Is Your To-Do List Working For You?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 7:00AM MAD21 By Alan
It seems funny that the inspiration to write a blog post about writing things down came from another blog post about writing things down. Lifehacker included a reference to It Didn't Happen If You Didn't Write It Down.
One of my favorite productivity blogs is 43folders. Merlin Mann has been writing a blog about productivity and getting things done for over five years, and has wonderful insight into why people do terrible things to themselves in the name of productivity. But, he does it with such humor and funny insight into people's behavior, that it's fun to read.
He has a great section on How to Use 43 Folders, and the section literally is titled "What Sucks?" with entries like "My attention management sucks," "My blog sucks," "My fiddling with 'productivity systems' sucks," and my favorite, "My to-do list sucks."
So, forget the methods, and forget Getting Things Done. Just write down what you need to do AS SOON AS YOU THINK OF IT. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Don't even wait until you stop driving the car. Hit the handsfree calling, call yourself, and leave yourself a voice message. You won't forget that message when you get home. write in one place, and leave it.
It's all about focus.
Okay, what was I going to do next?
Every Wednesday, fellow blogger Kristen at We are THAT Family posts clever ideas for getting things done. She calls it, "Works For Me Wednesday" or WFMW. Be sure to go visit her blog to read her post along with links to other blogs who are participating.
Reader Comments (2)
Hmmm. Should I put down writing things down on my list?
Kidding. When I was teaching, I made to do lists all the time. Sometimes I'd add something AFTER I'd done it so that I could FEEL productive when checking how far I'd gotten.
Well, sure I could that, but if I wrote down everything, I would have no excuses anymore. What are trying to do to me? :)