Renegade Yogi

Anti TODO List

Everyone loves the TODO list. The bedrock of productivity systems. It reminds you of what you should do, not only so that you don’t forget, but maybe even to get you to do things that you don’t want to do.

The worst thing for me about a TODO list is that it reminds you what you haven’t done. It’s like it’s wagging its finger at you, like you should feel guilty for not checking off more items. At the beginning of your day, you ambitiously write down ten or twelve things that you should do. At the end of the day, you sheepishly look over it and see only three things checked off. You feel lazy and unproductive.

But you were doing stuff all day. You were busy. You were working. You just didn’t get to those things you happened to have written down. It’s not a good system for feeling productive.

Well, I want to tell you about another “productivity system”. It’s the anti-todo list. The idea is really simple: write down things you actually do, as you do them. It’s not for things that you think you ought to do. It’s for all of those little tasks you do throughout the day that never make it onto your todo list, but take time anyway, and are incredibly useful.

At the beginning of the day, you have an empty sheet–full of possibilities. At the end of the day, you have a record of all of the actions you took that day. A full sheet, like the day meant something. If you want to feel more productive, what better way than to memorialize your activity?

Plus, it lets you review. You can say “I’m spending a lot of time with email. Maybe I should streamline that.” You can’t do that with a TODO list!

I like the idea, so I’m going to try it. Who wants to join me?

PS I think Marc Andreessen came up with the idea of the anti-todo list. He would write his anti-todo list on the back of his todo list.