I agree, and the act of carrying a notepad around is not usually an issue for me anyway. I keep my work checklist at work and bring it home on days when I work remotely. I also keep checklists at home for non work stuff. Shopping lists are usually torn out of home checklists, brought with me, and then disposed of.

There's also something really gratifying about physically checking stuff off of a list.

The truism "out of sight out of mind"

It's surprisingly true. To the point I noticed that in times of stress, I would simply not look at whatever productivity tool I've been using. I found myself no longer invoke org agendas. No longer opening the paper notebook with tasks. Hell, I found my eyes glazing over the whiteboard with a list of tasks I put there the previous night.

Semi-conscious avoidance is a terrifying thing.

That's an underlying issue (PEBCAK) which can be mitigated with mindfulness. The same could happen with an abundance of p&p notes. Someone who claims it doesn't happen w/their p&p notes, why would it happen with digital ones? Because the storage is easier and accessible (cloud in on your mobile in your pocket)? But an agenda full with notes isn't hard to carry around. My mother has been doing that for ages. She writes her passwords in her agenda, for example, and she still can't find them because its not well-logically mindfully structured. That wouldn't be solved by digitisation. Its PEBCAK all over.

So what is the solution?

I dont know ‘the’ solution but, i can tell you what has been working for me for a year now.

1. Pocket notebook (physical) for this week’s todos and random ideas

2. sticky notes for chores and mindless lists

3 whiteboard for half baked ideas

4. google keep for digital content like images, bookmarks, phone numbers, shared lists

5. Notational velocity with notes organized in Noguchi’s chronological order.

I have a minor tweak in this where i paste sticky notes within the physical notebook so i can move them around.

There is not one solution but I can tell what works for me (and is based on scientific evidence) is mindfulness, exercise, and an anti depressant (Prozac). YMMV.

My list is a widget on my phone's home screen - unavoidable.

I do:

- 1. Checklist on paper

- 2. Take a photo of it

Sometimes:

- 3. Rewrite at destination

Always:

- 4. Rewrite every few days

Yeah I do a similar thing except with a dry erase marker on the refrigerator. Being able to open a photo of my to-do without going through some stupid app saves a ton of aggravation.

So set a daily reminder to check the list?

I'm not OP, but I find I ignore such reminders, but don't ignore the paper in front of me.

I think the reason is that the phone sends many notifications, and at least on iphone it's hard to make the todo list reminder that much more prominent. Also mentally it feels like just another phone task.

Also putting stuff on paper forces sorting. I keep larger lists on digital, but I find for daily paper has a bigger impact.