Comment by corobo
2 years ago
I've recently been wondering if maybe I'm overcrowding myself in this way. I mean I definitely am, but I'm starting to wonder if there are any other options besides burning through tasks whenever I get a good day.
I don't think I've had an empty task list in my entire professional career outside of changing jobs and effectively declaring task bankruptcy. Todoist's end of day notification often says something like "review the 54 tasks remaining for the day".. One day someone will figure out a system that works for every ADHDer in the modern world and we'll have a new tech/space/etc renaissance, haha
Incidentally I saw this meme on Twitter while procrastinating something or other earlier, quite apt https://img.imgy.org/1xkR.jpg
Best of luck to you, me, everyone else struggling with this one!
For me, the biggest takeaway from David Allen's "Getting Things Done" book (which was hugely popular in the early 2000s) was that todo lists require aggressive pruning.
Otherwise they work well at first but quickly become giant guilt piles, aka "54 tasks remaining for the day" syndrome.
(Also then you never get the satisfaction of clearing your daily list, because it is one neverending eternal infinite list)
Which of your 54 daily tasks should be put on a "tomorrow" or "next week" or "next year" list? Which of them truly need to be done in the next 24 hours?
I'll give that a read, ta for the pointer. It's been on my to-read list for a long while but y'know, ADHD, haha. Bumped it up the list.
In the meantime I'll give my task list a realistic "when does this really need doing, if at all" audit, nice one
The total system he prescribes is perhaps a little elaborate, in many peoples' opinions.
Some people have great success with his system as described! I don't want to prejudice your thinking!
But I think perhaps 10x as many people found a lot of value from the principles he describes and adopting the bits of his system that work for them. (I am one of them) I'm just mentioning that in case you start reading and think "uhhhh this is overkill".
Above all else: good luck!!
2 replies →