Re:How Jeff Atwood works
by shanselman on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @06:03PM
(#4638436)
"Strong opinions weakly held" he says: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/05/strong-opinions-wea...
The counterargument is that all of these tasks are better suited for a calendar rather than an open-ended to-do list.
A calendar is basically a meta to-do list with reminders and deadlines.
Most people using calendars for this purpose don't realize that they are actually using to-do lists.
If I'm managing tasks, I'd rather use a UI designed for managing tasks (whether they be scheduled/due or not).
The point is that it's easy to dismiss the usefulness of todo systems if you characterise them as a manual-append-only-bucketlists. But unless you're Doing It Wrong, or using a terrible one, that's simply not the case.
Todo systems are not just for important things. They're also for mundane things. A few examples from my own:
- Get the share of that £xxx bill from a housemate.
- Every Tuesday and Friday: Move trash kerbside.
- At least weekly: Process any unopened postal mail I have sitting around.
- At least monthly: Check my online bank and scan for any unexpected transactions.
Why on earth shouldn't things like these be stored and optionally teed up by a system?