Nader K. Rad

Canceled items in my task manager

2024-08-14

I took a look at the closed items in my task management system:

Then, I started thinking about two things related to this:

1. Freedom of choice

I think it's sad if one doesn't have the option to cancel some of their todo items because it reflects one's level of freedom in what we do. I don't have statistics on what percentage of my personal todo items are reasonably cancelable, but it's obviously more than 25%. Maybe 70%?

Because of what I do, I have more freedom than most people (it comes with more uncertainty and risk). However, I think someone who has a completely deterministic work can also give themselves enough freedom by being efficient and conscious about what they do with their personal time. It has to be done consciously and proactively to avoid problems such as revenge bedtime procrastination.

2. Never delete!

How come I didn't do 𝚾?

When I have such a question, I check my todo system and find 𝚾 among the canceled items. I open it and see a short sentence about why I decided not to do it. You can't imagine how useful this feature has been to me!

One rule that comes with P3.express and micro.P3.express is that items that are added to the plan should never be deleted, and yet, at the end of the project, whether it's a normal closure or a premature one, ALL items must be closed. How? It's simple: being closed is different from being completed. Being closed means that you're not going to do anything else with the item, which can be one of the following substates:

Being "transferred" means that someone else will be accountable for the item. I haven't needed such a substate for my personal items [yet].

My todo system

What's my todo system?

I've used many todo systems, such as the powerful Toodledo or the relatively innovative TeuxDeux. However, no system worked for me in the long run. That's why I started to build my own process for the todo items with a simple file and directory structure. I've made some improvements over the last 3 years, and I think it works very well. I'll write a full article about it to explain my process, and especially the method I have to prevent zombie items from being created.

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