My To-Do List and “Tasks”
I ignored the “Tasks” application in my calendar programs for a long time; probably too long. (I use Google Calendar and MS Outlook) But the automated reminder helped me remember an important deadline at the office one day, and reminded me of it early enough that I was able to miss another episode of deadline panic.
Having proved itself, I put it to work again for a few more things and appreciated the way it helped me out.
My to-do list was HUGE as we prepared to move last fall. I had a list for selling the old house, another list for things to do regarding the new one, a list for move – related things, a new-job tasks list, a day-to-day list, and a “don’t-forget” list for things that were harder to categorize. The trouble is, I didn’t want all of those things staring me in the face every day. I’d have found a dark little closet at the end of some hallway and locked myself in just to escape! And I had no interest in copying and re-copying that list all the time; I had better things to do.
Since calendar “Tasks” will remind you when you tell it to (or not at all if you’d rather not) I put it to work. “OK, it’s on my list. I know I won’t forget now.” But Outlook didn’t mention it until three days before, the week-of, a couple hours ahead of time; whatever I told it to do. It works! When something non-critical gets postponed for some reason, I really like that Outlook and Google don’t roll their eyes and ask me “why-isn’t that done?” when I reschedule the due date. For example, cleaning up after a recent snowstorm our snow-blower broke a wire in the underground fence. We haven’t taught our dogs how it works yet so it’s not a priority. I don’t want to forget to fix it, but I want to tackle that one when it’s warm outside. I set the reminder for late March. If it’s a nice day the day when my reminder pop-up appears, great. If not, I’ll move it a week and hope it’s warm enough to fix it. Then I’ll show the dogs how much of the yard is theirs now. Until then, that task is in “Tasks” – but not this week’s list of stuff I gotta do.
I’ve come to appreciate it. It’s helping me be productive without making me feel guilty or anything. Give it a try. I love waking up without wondering what I forgot to do yesterday.
