A simple, minimalist approach to getting things done.

August 17, 2010 11:56 PM

This will be helpful if crossing out to-do lists and calendars work for you when you want to get organized...

It's a really simple little tool!

The really neat thing is that when you set your list, the browser "remembers" it and if you exit the browser and go on to make out with your girl, go to a job interview or whatever and come back to the sweet internet some time later the browser will take you back to whatever step you're currently in. The list runs down the steps (each activated when you punch "return") and you can edit it any time; insert/delete. You can also put HTML hyper-links.

*Without ad excreta.

*No other potential internet attention grabbing traps (e.g. google bar, follow us on facebook popularity-boosting button) neither.

What kinda sucks: If you kill your computer, when you resuscitate it an open the browser the list will no longer be. You'll have to set a new one.


///A very disjointed digression:
If I were in college again, in the freshman year, if I were again the kind of teen practical joker that I was,* I would use this to write various hilarious and gross lists in various browsers across campus and friends' computers.




*who, e.g., set the unfortunately now dead goatse.cx as my roomate's home page and got to hear sounds from him that only someone who's seen that website could decipher or empathize with. My roomates did worse to me sometimes. God, those days were fucking silly.///

posted by fantodstic (14 comments total)

Their little blog is pretty cool too.
posted by fantodstic at 12:03 AM on August 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Uh ....

Well, see, it's ...

Hm.

I'm not sure how long this will stay up, but anyway number one item on the list is to take a nap. So, off I go to be productive!
posted by krinklyfig at 12:35 AM on August 18, 2010

Are you sure this isn't just Merlin Mann screwing around with you?
posted by quadog at 12:42 AM on August 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

I've been not quite getting around to making something along these lines lately. Now I don't have to do it myself, or maybe I have to do it better than they did.
posted by plant at 3:01 AM on August 18, 2010

I love this!
Simple, immediate, unavoidable and strangely compelling .
It has been set as my first startup tab in IE.
Thanks.
posted by therubettes at 3:06 AM on August 18, 2010

It is often impossible to determine the order of a todo list completion in advance, there are too many variables in life. And the fact that it is lost if the computer is turned off makes this useless to anyone that carries a laptop and depends on battery life.

Also... from the about: "I wanted a 'boss' to tell me what to do."

there's the difference between them and me.
posted by HuronBob at 3:36 AM on August 18, 2010

Kind of useful. The simplicity I like, and the new list every time. If I WANT, I can save a text file locally, and cut-paste it into this.

I am disorganized. I haven't always been this way. Some attempts at doing something about it have been abandoned in the past, because the system was oppressive, or itself became a time-waster. That's why I like the simplicity of this little tool.

I have a to-do list app on my iPhone. I used it awhile, and liked it. Just now I don't remember what made me stop using it. Maybe because of the way it reminded me about all the things I never got around to doing.
posted by Goofyy at 4:28 AM on August 18, 2010

Every few weeks, I go into iCal, make a huge and comprehensive list of every thing I need to do (including "it would be nice" projects and other non-essential tasks), have an adorable little panic attack, and then get all productive and stuff. I'll be like this for a week or so and feel terribly proud of myself, and then life will intervene and the to-do list will recede on the horizon.

A few weeks later, feeling hazily overwhelmed with work, I'll re-open iCal, give myself another anxious jolt, re-organize the list, and start all over again.

I envy people whose work doesn't follow them home. What must it be like to know that it's 5:00pm and the rest of the day is yours?
posted by LMGM at 5:48 AM on August 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Generally-minimalist-guy-who-uses-about-seven-fields-in-Toodledo-and-subscribes-to-about-10-calendars here.

Listen, I get it, personal productivity and making lists instead of actually doing stuff and GTD have gotten out of hand. I carry around my notecards like a good ubiquitous capture soldier, and keep my inbox at zero. But, as much as it shocks me to say this here of all places, technology is not all bad.

Why do I use so many fields in Toodledo? Well, people have birthdays. I like to buy presents for people on their birthdays, which come round once a year. A recurring task once a year to buy someone a birthday present is a really helpful tool to remember to do it. A start date on the task, so it only shows up on my list near when their birthday is, is a helpful tool in not cluttering up my house. And a context on that task ("Be more considerate!") helps me connect it with my larger goals. The more I can trust that list to show me what I need to do, when I need to do it, the more I can set it, forget it and focus on the people I'm talking to or the thing I'm doing in the moment, and the less time I spend color-coding file folders.

Obviously, YMMV.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 5:53 AM on August 18, 2010

"Every few weeks, I go into iCal, make a huge and comprehensive list of every thing I need to do (including "it would be nice" projects and other non-essential tasks)"

Have you ever read David Allen?
posted by autocol at 7:09 AM on August 18, 2010

I'd love to take a nap, as this list suggests. Unfortunately, first I have to finish my work day.
posted by sandraregina at 8:09 AM on August 18, 2010

Doesn't send a Tweet and update my Facebook stream when I do something?

Useless. Is there at least a plug-in API?
posted by mkultra at 7:53 AM on August 19, 2010

mkultra: I think the point of it is (and from what I can gather from people who do use it) is that it's more of a browser tool that works best when set as a home page. When you open a new window, it still has that step you have to get through (as you told yourself you would, presumably, when you punched it in). This is what I did and I find it very useful. Though I can see the benefit of the tweet + fb update, I think such an integration would hinder its effectiveness (and might even be more of a sidetrack if it did.)

People do work differently. I find that it works best for me as a home page. I dunno, maybe if you try it it will for you. Just a thought, though, I don't mean to suggest it is the only way (let alone the best way.)

I'm sure, though, such an update will become an option later on; it's still a relatively new tool...
posted by fantodstic at 10:54 PM on August 19, 2010

Ah, shit, I guess my first sentence does say it works best when set as the home page. Um. Ok so, there, I said it; I think that is, indeed, the best way this tool works, haha.
posted by fantodstic at 10:57 PM on August 19, 2010