I have two levels of to-do lists, and it's worked out pretty well for me. If I had to juggle all my ideas in my head, I'd be aloof and incommunicable most of the time. This in part also to allow me to be a present in my relationships, to work at work. I get too much tunnel vision and just spin my wheels. I also believe in separating thinking from doing, spending time away from my projects thinking seems to consistently produce solid new takes, but that is rarely the case if I'm actually at the keyboard working. Putting them in a todo list helps me let go of them until I have the time to put them into action. If I'm inspired I may have many more ideas than I have time to realistically implement. If there's too much junk, I'll delete some of it. I don't spend a lot of time making sure they're in some sense perfect, it's just a tool, if it gets the job done it's fine.
If I have enough ideas to require them I'll use them, if I don't then I don't. I'm very much an on-again-off-again todo:er, depending on what life throws my way. If you look for role models just search for those people who are very productive in an apparently effortless and natural way. So go and find some system like Getting Things Done or similar, learn it, use it and practice, practice and practice. You won't find out by yourself whether you are holding it wrong until you have already hurt yourself. You will need to rely on the expertise of others who have already gone very far, in the same way you need to trust your tennis trainer in how to use the racquet. My advice to those of you who are still young: do count on your immense energy and raw (intelectual) brute force if/as needed but please dedicate a conscious amount of time to deliberately develop a system which is sustainable and can grow with you as needed. Once you hit a plateau (or you are already overwhelmed and incapable of coping with things) most people will not be able to start re-learning to do things from scratch neither accept the hit on their productivity for a significant amount of time until they manage to do things on top of the new system. You can even get injured very easily (literally in sports, burnt out on a desk / management job) or you can just slowly become dead wood over time.Ĭhanging how to do the fundamentals is more and more difficult with experience and age. You can get quite far without getting the basics right, but then you hit a limit you can't get past it without fundamentally changing things. Having a system to do things is like having good form when playing and instrument (or some sport). Every (long term) successful person I have met used todo lists.
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