Ten
News ·Sunday January 31, 2010 @ 16:20 EST (link)
My OneNote TODO list has gotten rather out of hand. I have big projects that will take more time than I have at present, and little urgencies, all on one list. So of course the solution is another list. (Hey… wait! Where are you going?)
To ensure I make progress on things, I've created a new page with a limit of ten items, and each has a date that it was added. If I go more than two weeks without making progress on an item, it gets removed (to languish back on the big list). For recurring items, like shooting practice, the date is updated whenever I carry them out. Having an item move off this list is accounted a failure; it's not something I want to happen, and by the removal policy I'm conditioning myself to not add things I can't get to soon. Crossing things off, like schoolwork, gives a certain sense of accomplishment.
While it's unlikely I'd forget about the more urgent items (schoolwork, again, as an example), a short list keeps these things uppermost so they can be distributed over the time available before the due date, and adding smaller parts of larger projects ensures that progress is made on them too, a bit at a time. Or at least, that's the idea. (No, I'm not claiming a short TODO list is a revolutionary idea. I'm just making a note.)
