Re:Checklists are hard (but still a good thing)
by Jtsummers on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @06:50PM
(#44664852)
This is one of the key concepts of "Getting Things Done". Getting tasks and information out of your head so you can actually focus on what you want to accomplish or need to do. GTD has a lot more to it, but this is around 80-90% of it with the rest being implementation details. When you get the idea, as you have, you can start reflecting and trialing different systems to see what specifically works for you and in what contexts.
Re:Checklists are hard (but still a good thing)
by parpfish on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @08:14PM
(#44665487)
This is a very-HN way of describing it, but one way I conceptualize my list-making is memoization/function caching.
My brain already went through the hard work of figuring out what to do, so I should cache that result in the todo list. later I can do a quick O(1) lookup of what do and use all of my focus on doing that.
Re:Checklists are hard (but still a good thing)
by patrickmay on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @06:44PM
(#44664810)
"The mind is for having ideas, not holding them."
-- David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.
too often i'll have a sudden thought about "oh, i need to make sure to fix X" or "I cant forget to pack Y before the trip". My options to deal with those sudden thoughts are:
1. Do it immediately, which isn't always possible
2. Do it later, which means that I'll obsessively stress out about it because "what if I forget to do it? I need to make sure this stays at the forefront of my mind at all times."
3. Put it on a checklist and give myself permission to stop thinking about it until its time to do it